Slayers Reconcile
by Lord Slayer
Summary: When Lina and Naga meet back up after four years, it is a less-than happy reunion. However, they must reconcile their differences to defeat a dark force from their past. Chapter 12 is up! Story complete!
1. Chapter 1: Crispy Bandits

**Author's Note: **This is my first fanfic on here, so I really hope that you enjoy it. Please review, even if its negative, so that I know that people are reading this. However, please no flaming.

This story takes place some time after Revolution, though with no Pokota. Actually, I'm trying to include as few references to Revolution as possible, since it is not yet complete. The point of this story is to try to explain why Lina and Naga originally split up, and how they get back together.

I will post one chapter every two days. Rated T for comedic violence, regular violence, some suggestive themes, and some minor language (which I try to keep to a minimum anyway since it is a pet peeve, but I gotta stay in character). Please enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **Do I own Slayers? You have no idea how much I wish I did, but unfortunatley I do not. That honor goes to Hajime Kanzaka.

**Slayers: ****Reconcile**

**Chapter 1: Crispy Bandits**

"Fireball!"

A violent explosion rocked the forest, sending burning leaves, heated dirt, and well baked bandits flying into the air.

The leader of the bandits, a huge and burly man who was as strong as a grizzly bear and (normally) as intimidating as an enraged black dragon, got down on his knees to beg for mercy.

"Please, Miss! Please have mercy on us! We are but a humble band of honest highwaymen just trying to make a living! Please show some mercy, I beg of you!"

The person that this rugged giant was pleading to was a girl of about eighteen or nineteen- though this was somewhat difficult to determine by sight alone as she was rather short for her age. Her build was rather plain, but her face had a child-like youthfulness that was quite pretty. Her eyes were the color of rubies, and shone brightly with intelligence and mischief. However, they lacked compassion for the groveling criminal at her feet.

Her cape was dark blue with a dark red lining, and was kept in place by a pair of pointed shoulder guards. The cloak flapped in the breeze, accompanied by her long, bright red hair. Strapped at the back of her waist was a shortsword. Around her neck, and at her waist and wrists were shining silver talismans, each one inset with a single bright red gem the size of a small egg.

The girl pointed a gloved finger at the bandit boss as she asked, "And what makes you think that I'm going to spare you after you and your boys have spent the last month robbing Lord Rolthmier- my current employer's- trade routes?"

"Y-you work for Lord Rolthmier!?" exclaimed the bandit as his body broke out into a cold sweat.

"Yup," replied the girl, "And when a wealthy lord hires Lina Inverse to hunt down a band of pesky bandits, then Lina Inverse is all too happy to oblige (provided that I get paid well, of course)!"

"LINA INVERSE!?" the bandit screamed loudly. "The Bandit Killer!? The Dragon Spooker!? The- OW!"

"I'm okay with 'Bandit Killer,'" Lina explained irritably as she removed her foot from the robber's face, "But please don't call me a 'Dragon Spooker.' Its very insulting, especially when its used to mean that 'Dragon's step aside out of shear revulsion.'"

"I got it," the robber moaned as he rubbed his nose.

Suddenly, the bandit's eyes lit up with inspiration, and said (while still groveling), "Oh, great Lina Inverse, I beg of thee! If you would show mercy upon me and my remaining minions, we shall go far, far away from here, never to return. What is more, we shall give to you our most secret and valuable treasure as a sign of our sincerity."

Lina was skeptical, but she could not prevent her eyes from lighting up at the mention of "Secret and valuable treasure."

"Where is this treasure?" she asked.

"Right over there," the bandit groaned, pointing at a large tree that stood some ways off directly behind Lina. "Its all buried right there underneath that big, black oak tree."

As soon as his captor had turned around to investigate the tree, the bandit's expression changed instantly from frightened to malicious. Drawing a dagger from a hidden sheath in his boot, the brigand lunged at the sorceress.

Lina had seen it coming though. As soon as she had heard the knife being drawn, the young sorceress had begun to turn around. In her hands, another fireball was forming.

"Lina, look out!" a male voice cried out, and suddenly a broad-bladed longsword came flying out of the trees.

The bandit yelled, and was thrown backwards to the ground. Standing straight up from his chest was the sword that had just been thrown.

Out of the woods stepped a young man in his mid-twenties with long blond hair. He wore blue clothing, black fingerless gloves, and a black breastplate with wide pauldrons. At his side was an empty sheath for a longsword.

"Sorry, Lina," Goury Gabriev yawned, "I didn't mean to fall asleep during the middle of our shake-out. I just got so bored."

"Its alright," Lina sighed, "Its not a problem. They're just a bunch of wimps anyway. And for the record, it's called a 'stake-out.'"

"Ooh! We're having steak tonight?"

"That's not what- I mean-," Lina stammered, then sighed in resignation. "Yes, Goury, we can have steak tonight."

"Alright!" the dim but well-meaning swordsman cheered as he pulled his sword out of the dead bandit captain.

By this time the other bandits who had survived Lina's opening assault had begun to recover, and they were none too happy.

"Hey, dey killed da boss!" yelled one.

"Call us wimps, will ya!?" exclaimed another.

"Let's get em!" declared a third.

With a barbaric yell, the remaining dozen bandits charged the two adventurers.

"Hey, Goury," Lina challenged, "Whoever gets the most bandits wins. Loser buys the winner a five course steak dinner!"

Goury's eyes lit up at the thought.

"You're on," he grinned.

* * *

"Wow," said Lina, a few minutes afterwards. "We each got six. I wasn't expecting that."

"So who buys the steak dinner?" asked Goury.

"I dunno," Lina replied as she shifted the bag of bandit loot that she was carrying over her shoulder.

"Well," said Goury, "I was just thinking..."

"Oh, Goury!" Lina exclaimed happily, "You're volunteering to buy me a five course steak dinner!? Oh, how generous of you! I accept!"

"Sure thing Lina. I'd be happy to buy you a- Hey! Wait a second!"

The sorceress laughed and ran off, while her best friend chased after her.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a lone man in a long black cloak and hood was observing them from atop a tall tree branch, hidden within the shadows. In his hand he held a pair of thorn-covered roses, one black and one red.

"Ahh, my dear Lina Inverse," the man said to himself as he held the roses up to his nose, "You are still just as beautiful and powerful as ever. And this time, I will not lose you."

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome and Unwelcome Reunion

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 2: Welcome and Unwelcome Reunions**

"Oh, where can they be?" said the girl, half to herself and half to her companion. "How can we ever hope to find them? They could be anywhere in the world. It'll take a miracle to find them!"

"Calm down, Amelia," the man said, "This isn't like you."

"Yeah, I know," Princess Amelia Wil Tesla Seyrunn sighed. "I'm sorry Mr. Zelgadis, but I can't help it. We only have another five days to find them, and what with all those poor people and all…"

"Don't worry," Zelgadis Greywords interrupted, "We'll run into them soon enough. All we have to do is follow the debris and the eateries."

Amelia smiled at the rare joke, made all the more humorous by its dead-on accuracy.

The princess of the kingdom of Seyrunn was dressed in her traveling clothes, as the adventures that she and her friends commonly found themselves in the middle of were not at all suitable for proper princess garb. She wore a white or cream colored outfit with baggy pants, and sleeves which cut off just below the shoulder. It even came came complete with a matching cape with pink lining.

Her companion's outfit was somewhat similar, although more of a dirty white color, non-baggy pants, and full sleeves. He also wore fingerless gloves of the same color, and a matching cape with a light blue lining. His cape was also more intricate than his friend's in that it had a second layer which stopped shortly past the shoulder blades, and included a mask and a hood. The mask and hood were both up, as they often were whenever Zelgadis was out in public. Strapped to his side was a longsword with a curved hand guard like a pair of fangs pointing in each direction.

Amelia was about seventeen or eighteen. Her hair was jet black, short, and very shiny due to good daily grooming. She was of about average height for a girl her age, and had an attractive figure. However, Amelia had always been a very modest person, and so rarely showed it off.

By contrast, Zelgadis was over six feet tall and lanky, but carried himself in a princely fashion. He was in his early 20s, and had purple, wire-like hair, pointed ears, light blue skin, and was covered all over with rocks. This was because Zelgadis was 1/3 human, 1/3 rock golem, and 1/3 brow demon: The result of a foolish deal made with his grandfather Rezo many years before.

As Amelia and Zelgadis walked down the street of the small town that they had just entered, they came across a restaurant that was advertising half-priced steak dinners in its window. The pair took but a single glance through the glass, smiled to each other, then stepped inside.

Although the restaurant was filled with customers, there were only two people in the whole building who were actually eating. Everyone else, including the waiters, were staring. Some stared in disbelief, others in disgust, but they all just stared. In the middle of the room sat the objects of the staring: Two travelers wolfing down platter after platter of food as if they hadn't eaten in years.

Then the restaurant's customers began to stare even more when a young woman and a young man- both dressed in traveler's clothes, and one with his face hidden- walked up and sat down with the pair of gluttons.

"I figured that we'd find you two either pigging out, or blowing up bandits," said Zelgadis to Lina Inverse.

"Hey, Zel! Hey, Amelia!" Lina greeted as she stacked down another plate on top of her pile, followed by a long draught of ale to wash the food down. "How's it going?"

At that moment, Goury suddenly began to choke violently on a chunk of t-bone that he had accidentally bitten off.

As Zelgadis began to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on his idiotic friend, a terrified-looking villager burst into the restaurant.

"The Crazy Laughing Woman is back!" the man yelled/

Instantly, all of the locals froze. Half a second later, everyone who had paused- waiters, customers, and chefs- dropped whatever it was they were doing and ran. Some people screamed and yelled as they fled, while others began to take bits of wax from their pockets and stuff it into their ears.

The few who remained- including Lima and her party- just sat there in shocked silence.

"Ummm, what just happened?" Amelia asked.

"I dunno," answered Lina.

The other remaining customers also voiced their confusion.

Zelgadis finally managed to dislodge the bone from Goury's air tract. The chunk of bone clattered to the ground in the midst of a puddle of spilled soup.

"That's why you shouldn't eat so fast," the chimera scolded, "And that goes for you as well, Lina!"

The red-haired sorceress merely stuck out her tongue in reply.

At about this time, a hapless dishwasher who had been forced to stay behind to put out all of the cooking fires fled from the kitchen.

"Hold it right there!" Lina commanded as she grabbed the young man by the collar, "What's going on here?"

Amelia, Zelgadis, Goury, and the other remaining customers gathered around to hear what the nervous-looking chore boy had to say.

"Th-there's been this crazy sorceress lady in a skimpy outfit that's been running around this area lately," the youth stammered. "S-she's been hiring herself out as a mercenary- which would normally be okay- but wherever she goes she makes this horrible laugh like a demonic howler monkey! Its incredibly loud and annoying, and she does it so often that some townsfolk have gone mad because of it. I've even heard that listening to it too much caused one guy to go into a coma!"

"A crazy lady in a skimpy outfit with a laugh like an evil howler monkey…?" Lina thought aloud to herself.

"Nah, it couldn't be," she decided a moment later. Then she released the boy and said, "Okay, you run along now."

"No kiddin'!" the chore boy yelped as he shoved a pair of wine corks into his ears and ran. "I'm outta here!"

"That was…," Zelgadis began.

"…Odd." Amelia finished.

"Uh, okay. What's going on?" asked Goury.

"Nothing that concerns us," Lina answered, "Let's go."

It was just as the group exited the restaurant and began to walk down the now deserted streets that the laughter began. It was loud, obnoxious, arrogant, and did indeed sound like the undulating call of the howler monkey.

Lina and Amelia instantly froze.

"I know that laugh," the two sorceresses groaned, then turned to look at one another in confusion.

"Welcome, grateful townsfolk!" a loud, obnoxious, arrogant voice shouted down from the rooftops. "Once more your humble town has been blessed with the near-divine presence of I: Naga the Serpent!"

"Look up there!" Goury shouted as he pointed to the top of a nearby bell tower, "There's a half-naked lady up there!"

Everyone turned to look.

Lina and Amelia's eyes nearly popped out.

Posing dramatically on the bell tower's roof was a tall woman with pale skin, purple eyes, an over-abundant bust, and long, flowing, blue-tinted, black hair. The only clothes that she wore were a leather, midnight blue bikini-like thing that was quite the exact opposite of modest, complete with matching knee and elbow length boots and gloves. She also wore a long, midnight blue cloak with a dark purple lining, oversized pauldrons covered with large spikes, and a broadsword strapped to her waist.

Lina tensed, her face pulling into a scowl and her hand curling into a tight fist.

"Naga…," she said darkly, making the name sound like a curse.

With a great amount of dramatic flair, the woman called Naga leapt off of the roof. As she concentrated her magic to slow her descent, Naga noticed her old travel companion down below.

"Hey, Lina!" Naga waved, then lost her concentration and plummeted to the ground.

"Do you know that woman, Lina?" Goury asked.

"Kind of…," Lina fibbed.

"Ooogh…" Naga moaned as she sat up.

Amelia gasped.

"G-Gracia?" she stammered.

"Amelia?" Naga answered.

"Gracia!" Amelia shouted with joy as she ran towards the strange woman. "Big Sis!"

"Big Sis!?" Lina, Goury, and Zelgadis exclaimed in confusion as Amelia and Naga embraced.

"Hey, everyone!" Amelia called happily as she led her older sister to meet her friends. "I want you all to meet someone! This is my big sister, Gracia!"

"The Seyruun princess who disappeared after your mother's…" Zelgadis began, then stopped himself. He couldn't bring himself to say assassination, as he did not want to upset Amelia.

A shadow of sadness flickered over the womens' faces, but it passed quickly.

"Well, not exactly," Amelia explained. "We only said that she went missing to keep potential enemies from going after her. In reality, she just went adventuring. Daddy makes sure that she always has money and…"

Lina's eyebrows twitched.

"By the way, Sis," Amelia stopped and looked over to her sister in puzzlement, "What on earth are you wearing?"

"Oh, this?" Naga replied as she looked down upon herself unashamedly. "I found it in Mom's old chest just before I left. I assume that Mom wore it during her adventuring days, before she met Dad."

"WHAT!? Mom wore THAT!?"

"What's the big deal? It's the height of fashion for beautiful, talented sorceresses like myself."

Lina scoffed.

"So anyway, who's the blond and the ghost?"

"Oh, right!" Amelia declared, remembering her manners. "The blond swordsman is Mr. Goury Gabriev. He's really strong, but he's not all that smart.:

"Yeah, its true." Goury confessed with a laugh.

"And this is Mr. Zelgadis Greywords," the princess continued, gesturing towards her dear friend. "He's a chimera trying to turn himself back into a human again. Daddy knighted him, and now he's my escort and bodyguard." Amelia blushed happily at this last part.

"Ooh, he's quite a looker," Naga remarked as Zelgadis removed his mask and hood. "Quite a catch. Good work, Sis." Naga nudged her sister and winked playfully at this.

Amelia and Zelgadis both blushed and began to look rather uncomfortable.

Naga made her hideous trademark laugh, then said, "And I'm sure that you all already know that I am good friends with Lina Inverse, as well as her former traveling companion and partner!"

There was a short, awkward silence.

"Um, actually, Ms. Lina's never said anything about you," Amelia confessed.

"Nope, Lina's never said anything about you, at all," parroted Goury.

"Although you wouldn't remember even if she had," Zelgadis replied.

"Yeah, true," Goury laughed.

Lina merely stared at Naga darkly.

"I'm ashamed of you, Lina!" Naga scolded with a hurt tone of voice. "Not bothering to tell any of your friends that you had been both rivals and partners with the great Naga the White Serpent! Why, if I wasn't me, then I wouldn't wait to tell everyone I knew that I had been so long in the presence of someone as beautiful, intelligent, powerful, and utterly marvelous as myself!"

Amelia's expression was one of embarrassment.

"Your gratitude and intelligence must be as tiny as your breasts!" Naga continued.

Goury, Amelia, and Zelgadis' eyes widened in horror as the three quickly backed away.

Lina's eyes burst into flame.

Naga was suddenly thrown backwards with a big, black eye.

"You should know better then anyone else- even Goury- never to make fun of, or even mention my breast size!" Lina growled menacingly as she bared her teeth, revealing her oddly pointed, almost vampire-like teeth.

"And for another thing," Lina continued to rant, "You're one to talk about holding back information! I don't remember you ever telling me that you were Princess Gracia el Naga de Seyruun, OR that you got sent cash from home!"

"Well, uh, I didn't think that it was all that important," Naga stammered.

Lina grabbed Naga by her shoulder guards (being careful to avoid the spikes despite her rage), and hauled the older woman up close to her face.

"I paid for half your meals because you spent so much on booze, and I felt bad and didn't want you to starve- even though you had more money than just your share from our jobs- and you didn't think that was important!?"

"Uh…no?"

Lina angrily tossed Naga to the ground and jumped back a couple of paces.

"Dill Brand!" she shouted.

Naga screamed as the explosion array spell detonated beneath her feet and tossed her back up into the air.

"Gracia!" Amelia shouted as her sister made another spectacular crash landing.

"Well, if you travel with Lina for any amount of time and still say stuff like that then you get what you deserve," Zelgadis said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but, she's my sister!"

"Lina…." Goury nearly whispered. In a rare moment of insight, he could tell that something was wrong; something beyond the usual swiftly passing anger.

"We haven't seen each other in over four years, and this is how you treat me? You're so mean, Lina-chan!" a somewhat crispy Naga whined.

Lina's eyes flashed dangerously.

Zelgadis- normally the first to notice such things- could now sense the ominous bitterness within Lina. He braced himself to leap into action, knowing that his friend was about to get unusually violent.

When next she spoke, Lina was no longer yelling. However, the low tone and bitter venom of her voice was infinitely more menacing.

"Yeah," said Lina, her face pointing towards the ground. "That's another thing that I wanted to address with you: About us not seeing each other for four years. You've got a lot of nerve coming face-to-face with me after what you did."

"What I did…?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" Lina shouted. As she looked back up, tears glistened in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. "I know that that's usually an oxymoronic statement in your case, but just don't! You…you stole him from me, and…"

"What!?" exclaimed Naga in sudden realization. "You're still upset about him!? Lina, I told you what really happened! I thought that-."

Despite her burning curiosity, Amelia's mind and body went on high alert upon seeing that Lina, her best friend, was reaching for her shortsword.

Naga saw it too, and gulped loudly. This is what had cut off what she had intended to say.

"SHUT UP!" Lina shrieked. "Shut up! I don't want to hear it! I don't! I-I-AUGH!"

With that final scream, Lina drew her blade and leapt at Naga. The former princess recoiled and closed her eyes. Half a second later, upon hearing the clash of steel-on-steel, she realized that she was still alive. Cautiously she looked up.

Goury stood between Lina and Naga, his blade locked with his friend's. Behind Lina, Zelgadis had his arms wrapped around her shoulders and was attempting to pull her back. Amelia was on the ground, her arms wrapped around her friend's legs.

"Lina! What do you think you're doing!?" Zelgadis shouted.

"Please, Miss Lina! Please don't do it!" Amelia begged.

"Lina!" Goury shouted, "Snap out of it!"

Naga wisely kept silent.

Before anyone had the chance to cast a Sleep spell, Lina came out of her homicidal rage. She didn't come back to her senses, but she was no longer a threat.

Her shoulders slumped, and her arms fell lifelessly to her side. The shortsword clattered to the ground. There was no emotion in Lina Inverse's eyes; only tears.

As soon as Zelgadis and Amelia had let her go, and Goury had lowered his sword, Lina flung her arms around the perplexed swordsman's neck without any conscious thought. Then she laid her head down on his broad shoulders and began to weep.

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 3: The Betrayal

**Author's Note- ***reading from imaginary "Cook Book for Authors"* ...Add five cups of plot twist to thicken the plot. Remember to stir well.

Enjoy! =D

**Slayers: Reconcile**

**Chapter 3: The Betrayal**

"It all started about nine months before I met any of you," Lina explained to her friends. Her voice was low and emotionless. In her hands she gripped a tankard of strong ale, from which she now took a small sip. The warm, amber liquid did little to ease the numbness of her mind and soul.

It was now evening, and the group was gathered around a table at the back of one of the local taverns. Naga, who was pretending to be lost in her own drink, sat apart from the others, though still close enough that the chatter of the other patrons did not keep her from hearing Lina.

The teenage sorceress had only recently calmed down enough to tell anyone anything; and during that time Naga had refused to explain anything. For once in her life, Lina Inverse had no appetite as she began to relive some of her most painful memories.

"Naga and I were still traveling together," Lina continued, "One day we found a guy dressed like a sorcerer lying on the side of the road. He was beaten up pretty badly, and we did the best that we could to heal him.

"When he woke up, he introduced himself to us as Dameon Black, and told of how his traveling companions had grown jealous of his power, beaten him up, robbed him, and left him for dead. He was…," Here she paused with a small blush of embarrassment, but then continued on. "He was smart- really smart- funny, charming, and very cute."

Goury suddenly felt an extreme dislike for this Dameon that he didn't quite understand.

"Anyway," Lina continued, "It didn't take long for Dameon to lose all interest in Naga because of her stupidity- which annoyed her to no end."

Lina gave a weak laugh in spite of herself, while Naga scowled.

"But he did show interest in me- a lot of interest actually. I really liked him, and I think that he did too. He even told me that he loved me once...

"Anyway, he began to travel with us then; and he and I were a couple for nearly all that time. I was...," she paused for a sobbing breath, "Very happy."

Goury's dislike for the mysterious man grew ever greater.

Lina's eyes began to mist over again and her voice nearly broke as she continued, "But then one night, I heard a commotion coming from Dameon's room at the inn that we were staying at. I rushed in to see if there was anything wrong and…and…and I found him with HER!"

Lina's tears were now once more running freely down her cheeks as she stabbed an accusing finger at her former ally. The shout caused many of the visitors at the tavern to turn and stare. However, the dangerous-looking expression on the young sorceress' tear-stained face caused them to think better of their nosiness.

At Lina's accusation, Amelia gasped in horror.

Zelgadis said nothing.

Goury just looked confused, then asked, "Uh, why is it bad that Amelia's sister was in the same room with this Dameon guy?"

Lina, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Naga all nearly fell out of their chairs.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Zelgadis groaned, "You're twenty-something years old, and you don't have the slightest idea of what 'Being with her,' means?"

"Um, no. Should I?"

Again everyone nearly fell to the floor.

"Do you know what it means 'to cheat on someone' in terms of a relationship?" Lina questioned angrily, having been startled back to her old-self by her friend's stupidity.

"Um, could you be more specific?" asked Goury. "'Cause I know that there are all different kinds of relationships: Business relationships, social relationships…"

"Try b-boy...," Lina began, though strangely unable to finish her sentence.

"Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationships?" Zelgadis supplied.

"Yeah, those. Thanks, Zel. Try those kind of relationships jellyfish brains!"

Goury's eyes lit up with (semi) understanding.

"So this Dameon guy did something with your friend that hurt you really bad, didn't he?"

"She isn't my f-, he didn't-," Lina began, then gave up, and simply said, "Yeah. Yeah, he did."

"I see." Goury said.

The swordsman's expression was calm, but his hands beneath the table were curled tightly into fists, as if they itched to draw his sword and make this Dameon Black pay for hurting his Lina. Goury swore to himself there and then that he would make this guy pay for hurting her.

"So what happened?" Zelgadis asked, having already guessed the answer.

"I blew the two of them up with so many different spells that I wound up leveling the inn," Lina answered, trying unsuccessfully to regain her composure and usual care-free attitude. "Then I said that I never wanted to see either of them again, and left."

"I see," Zelgadis replied, his prediction having come true.

"What!?" Amelia yelled as she slammed her palms onto the table, finally having come out of the shock of hearing what her beloved older sister had done. "You're an adulteress Gracia!? You seduced a man, and then drove two lovers apart!? Oh, Gracia! The cause of justice has been shamed! Oh, how father and all of the world's other great allies of justice shall weep!"

Most of the tavern's occupants were now staring at the group- especially at Amelia, who was posing dramatically on top of the table.

Lina had now sunk so low into her chair that only the top half of her head was visible. Her ears were as brightly colored as her hair.

"Um, Amelia," she groaned, "We were never, um…"

"Intimate?" Zelgadis supplied once more.

"Yeah, that," Lina answered, her whole face now turning crimson.

"And this is just spit balling, but I take it that you're not sure that you even ever really loved the guy back," said Zelgadis.

She nodded.

Goury began to feel immense relief for some reason.

"But still," Amelia began again, "Adultery is adultery! It is wrong! It is vile! It is downright evil! Now repent your evil ways Gracia, or I shall be forced to smash you- yes, even you, my own sister- with the swift hammer of justice!"

"Get off the table," Zelgadis growled.

"You've got it all wrong!" Naga objected, "I wasn't doing anything like that at all! He had asked me earlier to talk in private with him in his room. When I did, he began explaining me on how he wanted to use the both of us to help him take over the world, or something. I refused to help, so he tried to attack me. I finally found an opening and jumped on him to subdue him for you Lina, but that's when you came in, got the wrong idea, and completely freaked out!"

"No!" Lina cried and slammed her fist down on the table, causing the wood to shudder. "Y-you're lying. You tried to seduce him. H-he wouldn't…"

"Miss Lina…" Amelia began, filled with nothing but concern for her normally strong willed friend.

"This isn't helping anything," Zelgadis interrupted, "I say that we all go to bed and cool off. Then we can finish this discussion in the morning."

"Fine by me," Naga huffed as she strutted of to her room on the second floor.

"Yeah," Lina sighed, "I'm too tired and mad to think straight anyway. Let's go get some sleep."

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Chapter 4: Hostage Situation

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the short chapter. I will make up for it by posting another chapter tommorow afternoon. I would highly recommend reviewing Episode 17 of the first season of Slayers between now and then, and pay close attention to everything. You never know...

**Disclaimer: **No...*sniff*...I still don't own Slayers! Stop rubbing it in, okay!? *begins crying again*

**Slayers: ****Reconcile**

**Chapter 4: Hostage Situation**

"Good morning, everyone!" Lina greeted her friends merrily as she joined them at the breakfast table in the tavern's common room the next morning.

"Morning, Lina!" Goury returned, having forgotten for the moment of the previous night's conversation.

Amelia and Zelgadis also greeted their friend, but glanced towards each other warily. Unlike Goury, they had not forgotten, and were thus on the look-out for any signs of Lina going ballistic again.

Lina seemed not to notice the looks sent between the princess and the chimera

"Waiter! Four courses of everything!" the sorceress shouted.

Once the puzzled waiter had arrived and set everything out, Lina and Goury immediately began to devour everything within reach, like a pair of starved sharks. Amelia and Zelgadis quickly and skillfully plucked up everything that they wanted, carefully avoiding the snatching fingers and chomping teeth with a skill born of necessity and honed by years of practice.

Halfway through their first course, however, Lina abruptly stopped, and pushed away the four empty plates stacked in front of her.

It took but a moment for Goury to notice, his rhythm having been thrown off by Lina's lack of attempts to snatch food away from him. The blond swordsman joined Amelia and Zelgadis in staring at his closest friend in deep concern.

Lina knew instantly what was going on.

"I'm fine, really," the red headed sorceress lied, "I just woke up with some bad stomach cramps this morning, so I just don't feel all that hungry right now."

Zelgadis raised the eyebrow of the one eye not hidden by his metallic bangs with skepticism. He remembered well that the last time that Lina had been without appetite was when Goury had been kidnapped by the Mazoku Lord Hellmaster Phibrizo.

"I-is there anything that you want to talk about, Ms. Lina?" Amelia asked.

"The only thing that I want to talk about right now," Lina replied, suddenly irritable, "Is that bit of business that you two tried to tell Goury and me about yesterday. I assume that its something important, am I right?"

Amelia gave a startled gasp, while Zelgadis merely nodded.

"Yes, it is." The chimera responded.

"So? What is it?"

"Oh, right," Amelia cleared her throat, "ABout a month ago, we of Seyruun received a letter from the small fishing village of Calthor- which is located near the south-western most end of the Alliance of Coastal States' territory. This letter came from a gang of bandits who claimed to have taken over the village, and demanded that Lina Inverse should come to test her strength against them within thirty days, or they would kill all of the villagers. Then they would move on to another village and repeat the demands. They also said that if anyone but you tried to stop them, then they would kill the villagers anyway."

"Prince Philionel sent out scouts and messengers all throughout the Peninsula to try and find you," said Zelgadis, "Including us."

"Now we have only four days left," Amelia urged, "And Calthor is a three day journey from here!"

"Which means that we have to leave right away," Zelgadis added for emphasis.

"What are we going to do, Lina?" Goury asked.

Lina sighed irritably.

"Oh, come on! There are plenty of other famous sorcerers out there. Why does everyone always have to come after me?" she whined.

The red head gave another sigh, then said, "Oh well. It can't be helped. Let's go save those villagers guys!"

She ended her sentence with a thumbs-up, grin, and a wink.

As the party stood to leave, an obnoxious female voice spoke up from behind them.

"Wait," said Naga, "I'm coming with you."

"No, Naga," was all Lina said without bothering to turn around.

"I can help," Naga persisted. "I'm a strong spellcaster, and you know it! It used to be that no bandit gang could ever withstand us, no matter how many more guys they had."

Lina sat silently for several moments, her mind lost in thought.

"Please, Miss Lina!" begged Amelia, "Please let Gracia come! I'm sure that you know as well as I do that she can be a pain sometimes, but she's still my sister! I haven't seen her for so long! Please don't send her away!"

"Come on, Lina," persisted Goury, "She can't be all that bad."

"And the more people that we have, the less effort that it'll be to defeat the bandits." Zelgadis pointed out.

Another few moments passed.

"Oh, fine!" Lina conceded reluctantly, "Just so long as she doesn't talk to me."

Amelia and Naga failed to hear this last part, as they were too busy hugging and hopping about excitedly while people stared at them.

"Ha! Naga the Serpent and her junior partner, Lina Inverse, together again at last!" Naga declared, striking a pose. Then she began to let out a long, hard laugh.

Tables and chairs fell over as the rest of the people within the inn made a mad dash for the door.

"Is it too late to take back my vote?" Zelgadis groaned as he wearily put his head into his hand.

"Yes, Zel," Lina sighed, "I think it is."

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Note Part 2: **If you don't own any of the DVDs of Slayers, Funimation and one other person whose name I cannot remember at the moment have all of the first and second seasons posted on Youtube. Why they have not yet put up Try, I have no idea.

Oddly enough, there was at one time a guy called Kurahiel who had all three of the first three seasons, plus all of the movies the first OVA (he then discovered that someone else had all of the other OVAs already posted so he recommended people to him) posted, but then Funi nailed him for copy-right infringement and took away half of his videos, leaving no complete episodes (but leaving the movies). It was sometime after that that Funi itself began to post the Slayers Episodes. Filthy hypocrites!

I apologize for the rant. It just makes me so mad that they did that just because he didn't have a disclaimer on every post, and then go and post there own videos! Even worse is that they don't even do a good job, reposting the opening and ending themes with every episode, not even putting subtitles in with the themes and the japanese part of "Maiden's Prayer" in Next Episode 14, and then not even doing Try! The idiots! Grr!

*ahem* I apologize again for the rant.


	5. Chapter 5: A Not So Stealthy

**Author's Note:** I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. I also hope that you've all been watching Episode 17 of Slayers Season One, as there will be a reference thrown in here...somewhere. Which one is it? Well... (Xellos pose) That is a secret! ^_^ Cookies for anyone who figures it out!

**Slayers ****Reconcile**

**Chapter 5: A Not-So Stealthy Infiltration **

"Do you tink dat Lina Invoise goil will show up?" asked one of the three bandits stationed at the recently erected gate at Calthor.

"Oy 'ope not," replied one of his comrades as he roasted a piece of meat over the crackling fire.

"Da boss sure hopes so," said the first bandit.

"The boss if roight outta iz 'ead," the second one countered, causing both of the criminals to laugh.

"Shaddup!" exclaimed the third bandit- who was the officer in charge of the current guard shift- in a loud whisper, "I thought I heard something."

The trio stood still for several moments, staring out into the thick forest that had grown up long before the village had ever existed. Each one slowly drew his sword, and strained his eyes to see through the darkness of the night. The spooky-looking shadows cast by their campfire did nothing to quell their uneasiness.

Suddenly, a cluster of bushes twenty feet away from the bandit guards rustled loudly.

"Halt! Who goes there?" the lead guard demanded as he struggled to keep his face from cracking. The bandit remembered hearing from some of the imprisoned villagers that there were tales of vicious monsters and evil spirits lurking within the wood. During the daylight hours these tales had been nothing but ridiculous stories meant to scare him. In the dark of night, however, these stories seemed much more probable.

Just as the nervous guard was about to repeat his challenge the bushes rustled once more, five figures stepped out from the forest and into the fire's light.

The group was made up of three women and two men, and though they looked as if they had just walked out of a briar patch, the bandits could tell right away that these people were wealthy. The bandits' eyes lit up with ill-concealed greed.

The girls wore dresses that continued to retain their fanciness despite the many tatters. One was tall with long, auburn hair that went down below her waist, and a not-at-all under developed bust, which was further accented by her dress being a size too small. This was well noted by the bandits, who soon caught themselves with their mouths hanging open. The other two girls were shorter, with curly blond hair. Although roughly the same size, the dirty-minded bandits could not help but noticing another difference in size.

One of the men was quite tall, broad shouldered, had long blond hair which he kept back in a ponytail, wore a blue waistcoat, and possessed a full mustache and beard. The second man was slightly shorter, lankier, carried a pair of longsowrds, and wore an outfit that was all dirty white (except for the lining of the cape). His features were concealed by a mask and a hood.

The bandits assumed that the first man was the women's servant, and the second was their bodyguard. They figured that they could take them…hopefully.

"Please, kind sirs," said one of the blonds (the _bigger _one) in a high, weepy voice, "My sisters and I were traveling toward our rich father's castle when our horses stumbled and broke their legs. Our carriage driver knew of a village that was nearby, but we got lost in the forest, and…and…"

As the girl began to sob into her handkerchief, the second blond spoke up.

"So we, like, have totally been wandering around lost all day and night, and we would, like, be totally willing to pay well for a place to sleep, and maybe a guide to our daddy's estate."

"That could... be arranged," the head bandit said slyly. "That is, so long as Mr. Bodyguard over there doesn't object."

The man in white slowly shook his head.

The bandits grinned triumphantly amongst themselves.

"Oh, but perhaps we came by at a bad time," the tall red head said as she approached them.

Though puzzled, the bandits did not mind the odd statement. They were too entranced by the young woman's provocative movements.

"Perhaps we should leave for now, and come back in the morning," the woman said, turning back towards her group.

"Why do you say that?" asked the bandit.

"It's because the three of you all look so tired," the woman said with a playful wink that sent shivers up the thieves' spine. " Perhaps you should all go…to…Sleep!"

With that the girl blew a kiss at the bandits, and by her breath was blown magical, blue dust. Instantly, the bandits' eyes grew heavy, and their brains began fogging over. An instant later they were all lying upon the ground, fast asleep.

"Nice work, Gracia!" Amelia complimented as she pulled off her wig, then removed the used clothes from over her regular ones.

"A little over the top, but not too shabby," Lina agreed as she too removed her disguise.

This was the first thing that Lina had said to Naga ever since the team had set off, and so Amelia instantly became a bubbling fountain of joy.

"I do have one question though," Lina continued as Naga and Goury removed their own disguises and Zelgadis tossed the blond warrior's sword back to him. "We all had to buy most of our disguises, but you just happened to have a wig the same shade of red that I used to have, back when we were traveling together. Why is that?"

"Oh, this?" Naga replied. "I've had it for a while now. I wear it every once in a while when I feel a little Lina-ish."

With that Naga put the wig back on and struck a stylish pose.

"What do you think? Is red my color or what?"

"Lina-ish?" Amelia asked in confusion.

"Um, I think that the answer is 'Or what,'" said Goury.

"Yeah, I'm definitely going to go with Goury on this one and say, 'Or what,'" Lina concurred.

"I third and fourth that motion," said Zelgadis.

"Hmph! Ingrates!" pouted Naga as she angrily stuffed the wig back into a hidden pocket in her cloak.

"Anyway," said Goury, "Why would a fishing village have a big wooden wall like a fort built around it?"

"The bandits probably built it to help keep the hostages inside," Lina answered as she inspected the surprisingly well built structure.

"Should we just go blasting in, or what?" asked Naga.

"Of course not!" Amelia exclaimed. "Everyone knows that villains never keep their word! We must rescue the villagers first!"

"Keep your voice down," Zelgadis warned as he pressed a keen ear to the wall. "But she's right. We need to sneak in and get the hostages first. The bandits' letter never said anything about letting the villagers go free."

"Yeah, but before we can even do that we need to find out where they are being kept at," Lina whispered.

"How're we gonna do that?" asked Goury.

"Amelia, wake one of those guys up," Lina ordered, "Zel, make sure that he doesn't make too much noise."

Zelgadis randomly chose the head of the sleeping bandit trio, lifted the snoring man to his feet, and clamped a hand over the unconscious thief.

"Flow Break!" Amelia quietly exclaimed, casting the spell which lifts curses and enchantments.

The bandit's eyes opened. Almost instantly he began to struggle and call for help, but Zelgadis was too strong.

"Kugutsu!" Lina commanded, using her power to overwhelm the bandit's mind and control him.

Within a matter of seconds the bandit's face became expressionless, and he ceased his struggling. Zelgadis released him.

"Okay," said Lina, stooping down to look the brainwashed criminal in the eye, "Now tell me, are all of the prisoners together?"

"Yes," the bandit answered in a flat monotone.

"Where are they at?"

"In the town hall. It is the largest building in the whole village. You can't miss it."

"Excellent. Now, Sleep!"

Just as Lina broke off her own mind control, the sorceress cast a second Sleep spell on the bandit, instantly sending him back to dreamland.

"Okay, guys," Lina said as she turned back to her friends. "We're going to have to infiltrate this place by Raywing-ing way above the village, then set down right next to where the villagers are being held. Then we'll get them organized, rush out, blast anyone who gets in our way, get the villagers out, then wipe out all the rest of the bandits."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Then Goury raised his hand.

"Yes, Goury, what is it?" Lina sighed.

"Um, I don't like this plan."

"And why, pray tell, is that?" the sorceress growled.

"Well, in case you've forgotten Lina, I don't know how to use magic, so I can't fly. Am I just supposed to wait out here or something?"

Lina's patience ran out at that moment.

"Goury, you jellyfish brained idiot! Do facts and memories just randomly leak out of your brain!? We pick you up and fly you around all the time!"

"Ssssh!" Amelia, Zelgadis, and Naga hissed with their fingers to their lips.

"But isn't that kind of heavy" asked Goury.

Lina roundhouse kicked Goury in the side.

"No, you goon! How can it when you don't have any brains in that empty soup bowl that you call a skull to weigh us down!?"

"Lina! Be quiet!" Naga yelled.

"Miss Lina! Gracia! Please keep it down!" Amelia declared loudly. Not quiet yelling, but not being quiet either.

"Ssssh!" Zelgadis hissed, "Be quie- oh, crap."

The gates were opening.

**To Be Continued...**


	6. Chapter 6: The Villain Revealed

**Author's Note- **Prepare for plot- OW! Lina, please stop TWISTING my arm! I wasn't going to go any farther than that! YOW! *phew* Thank you. As I was saying- *glances nervously at Lina* Those with weak hearts or no sense of drama should please stop reading. Thank you. *walks off stage and approaches Lina* Can I have my arm back now?

**Slayers ****Reconcile**

**Chapter 6: The Villain Revealed**

Inside, over one hundred bloodthirsty bandits were lined up neatly in two rows on either side of the door, with every other one holding aloft a burning torch. They waved their torches, shook their weapons, growled menacingly, shouted threats, posed, flexed, and whatever else that came to mind to appear intimidating.

"Th-that's a lot of bandits," gasped Amelia.

"I'll say," replied Zelgadis.

Then the chimera's face formed a cocky smile as he drew his sword.

"However, I'm a bit skeptical on the argument for quantity over quality in this case."

"Hmph, indeed," agreed Naga as she strutted forward. The former princess was instantly greeted by a hale of whistles, and inappropriate and vulgar pick-up lines.

"They're just a bunch of show offs and pigs," Lina commented sourly.

"So, you've finally come, Lina Inverse!"

At the sound of this new voice, the assembled bandits instantly fell silent. From somewhere at the end of the twin rows, a man of about average height and build dressed all in black, concealing robes stepped out into the middle of the line. In his hand was a pair of roses- one black and one red- which were still covered in thorns.

"Oh! And Naga the Serpent is here as well!" the man exclaimed excitedly in a strong, masculine voice. "Excellent! Most excellent!"

Turning back to Lina, the mysterious man said, "Do not worry, Miss Inverse. You and your friends shall not be harmed. I merely have a small thing that I wish to discuss with you. So please, come inside."

"What is it that you want to discuss with me?" Lina demanded, as she and her friends continued to stand just outside of the open gate.

"Just a simple proposition, nothing completely ridiculous, I assure you. But please, do come in."

"I guess we don't have much choice," Zelgadis growled as he returned his sword to its sheath.

"Guess not," Lina agreed, "So long as they still have the villagers as hostages anyway."

The five cautiously entered into the fishing village-turned-bandit hideout. As they passed through the gates, a pair of gang members pushed the gates shut behind the team, and barred it with a heavy wooden beam.

"Ah, Lina!" the robed man said with a satisfied sigh, "It truly is a pleasure to see you again after all these years!"

"Do I know you?" the sorceress demanded. Though already aggravated at being captured, and further egged on by this creep's seeming-need to give a speech, she was still reluctant to begin blasting everything indiscriminately. Before she did that, she first wanted to know why the man standing before her seemed so familiar.

"You don't recognize me?" the man replied in a wounded tone, "Oh, Lina! Hmm, but perhaps if I first removed this cloak…"

With a flourish, the man threw off his cloak and hood. Beneath the disguise he had dark colored hair, gray eyes, handsome features, and a charming smile. His clothes were of a rich material, and were in the form of a black and gray, robe-like tunic, and baggy pants of the same color and material with mystic-blue runes sewn over the seams. Beneath this first cape was a smaller, lighter cloak, which was also black but also with a blue eye stitched onto the back.

Naga gasped.

Lina was dumbfounded and stunned.

"It's been a long time," asked the man, clearly pleased by the red head's reaction, "Hasn't it Lina?"

"Dameon…"

Goury looked quickly looked back and forth between Lina and the man that she called Dameon in confusion.

"Lina," the swordsman asked, "Isn't that the guy who hurt you?"

Lina merely nodded. A single tear ran down her cheek.

"You jerk," Goury growled as he placed a hand on hi sword and took a step forward.

"Wait," Zelgadis said as he raised an arm to block Goury's path.

"But…"

"Lina can handle this."

"And who might you be?" Dameon Black asked Goury in a mocking tone.

"My name is Goury Gabriev!" shouted the swordsman. "I'm Lina's protector; and unlike you, I will never do anything to hurt her!"

"Hmm," Dameon mused to himself out loud, "So you love her too."

"Huh!?" Goury exclaimed as his eyes grew as large as saucers and his face turned bright red. The flustered swordsman immediately began racking his brains to remember when he had said that.

"Hmmm, and you are an idiot as well," Black sneered. "Well in that case I have nothing to fear. But in any case, you know nothing! I did not do anything wrong at all; she is the one who overreacted. I merely-"

"SHUT UP!" Lina shouted as her eyes flared like a pair of volcanoes. "MEGA BRAND!"

Dameon yelled as the ground beneath his feet suddenly erupted in a violent explosion.

However, the attack was unsuccessful. The dark sorcerer had somewhat seen it coming, and so had managed to erect a Windy Shield just below himself less than half a second before the spell went off.

"A-ha! Sorry, Lina," Black mocked through the stirred up dust. "However, you've used that spell on Naga and I so much that I saw it coming from a mile…"

"Inverse Screw Kick!" Lina yelled as she came flying through the dust cloud, spinning in mid-air in a kick position.

"…Away."

Lina's kick connected with the sorcerer's head with a satisfying _smack_, and sent Black tumbling backwards head-over-heels for several feet.

"Oh, wow," said Goury.

"I'm scared!" Amelia whimpered.

"Hey! She was a lot nastier to me when I got attacked at our reunion! No fair!" Naga whined.

The hundred bandits stared in stunned disbelief.

Zelgadis merely looked on.

"Bomb Di Wind!" Dameon retaliated, blasting Lina back with a powerful blast of air.

The sorceress landed with a cat-like grace, her expression a dangerous scowl.

"Fiery as ever, eh Lina?" said Dameon as he returned to his feet.

"What do you want?" the red head demanded.

"The same thing that I've always wanted Lina," answered Dameon, "Power! I am going to be the one who will rule this world; and to do that I need powerful allies. My plan is to assemble the world's most powerful sorcerers, swordsmen, and strategists, and then use them to subjugate all of Red World beneath me!

"And I want you, Lina Inverse. You are almost everything that a man could possibly want: Strong, intelligent, powerful, beautiful. In fact, the only desirable trait that you do lack is your…er, well, I'm not going to say because I know from experience that that is something not to mention around you."

"I see," was all Lina said as her eyes began narrowing dangerously.

"And what about me?" Naga demanded as she strutted up to Lina's side. "I know that you also had something planned for me. Well, what is it?"

"Oh, but Naga; like Lina, I believe the real question is why _wouldn't_ I want you!" Dameon exclaimed as his eyes lit up with lust. "You also are one of the powerful people that I want for my army. And though you lack Lina's physical and mental strength, you are no less powerful, or beautiful. Not to mention you have in plenty the one quality that Lina lacks."

Both Lina and Naga's eyes grew wide in surprise, then narrowed again angrily.

"And, um, actually," Black continued on peevishly, and with a slight blush; oblivious to the danger that he was in, "I've actually been having a hard time figuring out which of you I desire more lately. However, I'm not against a polygamist lifestyle, so…"

The two sorceresses lost their patience simultaneously.

"NO…" Lina began.

"…WAY!" Naga finished.

Then together they yelled, "Die pervert, die! FIREBALL!"

Dameon screamed as he was blasted into the air by the twin spheres of explosive fire.

The bandit army recoiled in fear as they watched their leader go up like a roman candle.

"Help…me…" Black groaned his body blackened with soot and ash.

Finally, a handful of clerics to Shabranigdo gathered up the courage to put themselves into Lina and Naga's line of fire in order to heal their employer. Fortunately for these men, enough of the two sorceress' anger had been vented that they themselves were in no danger.

"So," Zelgadis asked as the newly healed Dameon was helped to his feet, "How many of these 'powerful people' do you have in your army?"

"Besides these guys?" Dameon thought for a moment, "Uh, ten."

"That's hardly an army," Zelgadis chuckled.

"It's a work in progress!" Dameon snapped irritably, "And I just might not need a whole army if the rumors are true."

"What rumors?"

"The rumors that Lina Inverse is one of the most powerful magic-users in existence right now, and that she has dueled with Shabranigdo, Gaav, Phibrizo, and others, and won. There are even rumors of some extraordinarily powerful spells within her possession."

"So what?" Lina demanded impatiently.

"Let me see these spells, Lina, my love," Dameon nearly begged as the light of greed shown brightly in his eyes, "Show me these spells that surpass even your mighty Dragon Slave, which I once thought so terrifying and impressive!"

"Once thought?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, not that I don't still think that the Dragon Slave is terrifying and impressive!" Dameon hurriedly corrected himself, his hands raised up in a reassuring gesture. "Its just that, according to my sources, these new spells of yours make the Dragon Slave look harmless by comparison."

"What sources?" the sorceress demanded.

"Ummm, uh," Dameon stammered, "Uh, that's a secret!"

"Your informant had purple hair, an irritatingly sarcastic voice, and a stupid grin plastered across his stupid face at all times, didn't he?" guessed Zelgadis.

"How'd you know!?"

"Damn you, Xellos!" Lina and Zelgadis growled simultaneously.

"But anyway," Dameon continued, "Show me your super spells, Lina!"

"No," the red head stated simply.

"What?"

"You hard of hearing? I said 'No.'"

"And why not?" Dameon demanded, "Back when we were together, you could never wait to show off a new spell."

"That's because these new ones are far too dangerous to just lob around casually."

"This coming from someone who used to throw around city-destroying Dragon Slaves at the slightest provocation," sneered Naga.

"And still does," Amelia, Goury, and Zelgadis groaned in unison.

"ANYWAY!" Lina declared angrily, as she considered using a Dragon Slave right there and then, "That just tells you how dangerous this magic is."

"Can't you give me a hint?" Dameon asked in an annoying, little kid-style begging voice, "Maybe even just a name or two?"

'I stand by what I said earlier about him being smart,' Lina thought to herself as she looked on in embarrassment, 'But now that I think about it, that really only applied in an academic sense. I can't believe that I forgot about his Naga and Goury-like lack of common sense. Boy, do I know how to pick 'em."

The sorceress sighed audibly, and then she conceded by saying, "Ragna Blade."

Black's eyes lit up in amazement.

"The Ragna Blade!?" he asked with greed-gleaming eyes, "The legendary Ragna Blade which draws power from the mysterious Golden Lord, the Lord of Nightmares!? The spell that has not been seen since a century before Sairaag was destroyed by Zanafaar, and is said to be able to cut through anything? That Ragna Blade!?"

"Yes," Lina said simply.

"AMAZING!" Dameon declared, "You must show it to me this instant!"

"And why should I do that?"

"Because if you don't," Black answered with a dangerous look, "One of your friend's might die."

As he said this, the sorcerer began forming a spell within his hands. His eyes were locked with Goury's, who stared back with a contempt equal to that of his enemy's.

"Fine then," Lina gave in after a tense few moment, "Just don't come crying to me when you get killed."

"It would be an honor to be killed by someone as beautiful as you, Lina Inverse," the madman answered with a mock-bow.

**To Be Continued...**


	7. Chapter 7: Blade of Darkness vs

**Author's Note:** Starting with this chapter, there will be some hints dropped on a character that I have created for an upcoming story called Slayers Learn, which will be a prequel to this one. The Ruby Eyes Blade is a real spell and is used by a character in the novels named Luke, who is also a carrier of Ruby Eyes Shabranigdo. The incantation for the Ruby Eyes Blade, however, I did make up. Lina's basing the Giga-Slave off of the Dragon Slave is what inspired me to base the REB's incantation off of the Ragna Blade's. Enjoy! ^_^

**Disclaimer- **Again, I don't own Slayers. I wish I did. But I don't. So there. Now leave me alone. *stands silently for several moments, then breaks down into tears and runs off to find a corner to cry in.*

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 7: Blade of Darkness vs. Blade of Chaos**

"Prepare yourself, Lina," Dameon declared as he began to summon up his power, "Let us see if your most powerful spell can stand against mine!

"Lord of the burning darkness,

Sword of blazing heat,

Free yourself from heaven's chains.

Become one with my power, one with my body,

As we walk the path of destruction together.

Power that matches that of the gods:

Ruby Eyes Blade!"

With a blast of fiery energy, a giant sword of blazing red energy burst forth and took shape within the hands of Dameon Black.

Lina Inverse, however, was not at all impressed with her former ally's display of power.

"That's it?" the red headed sorcery genius snorted, "All this time, and that's still the best that you can do? You haven't gotten better at all! Now watch and learn!"

Lina lifted up her arms and brought her four magic talismans into alignment. The amulets' gems began to glow bright as she chanted:

"Lord of the four worlds,

Grant me all the power that you possess!"

""What's she doing?" Naga demanded as she felt her old comrade's energy suddenly skyrocket to a level that she had never seen before.

"Those are the legendary Demon's Blood Talismans," answered Zelgadis, "The same ones that once belonged to Lei Magnus. They increase her bucket capacity times six, allowing her to use magic that most humans are incapable of using."

"What? Since when can Lina-chan do that!?" Naga gasped in amazement.

Even as they said this, Lina had already begun to cast what was in truth merely her second-mightiest spell. Once the Boost spell had been cast, she lifted her hands out in front of her clasped them together, as if she were wielding a sword. As she began to chant the incantation, black, chaotic energy began to snap and crackle all about Lina, finally concentrating into her hands.

"Lord of the dreams that terrify,

Sword of the cold and darkness,

Free yourself from the heaven's bonds.

Become one with my power, one with my body,

As we walk the path of destruction together.

Power that can smash even the souls of the gods:

RAGNA BLADE!"

Upon the final phrase, an enormous blade of black energy exploded into existence. As the chaotic energy crackled and sparked, it seemed as if the blade was disintegrating the very air.

"Amazing!" Dameon declared as he watched the deadly spell take form. "Incredible!"

Then, Black's expression changed into a sneer as he said, "But despite its power, however, I'm guessing that it requires far more skill to master it. I bet that that spell of yours takes at least a decade to master, whereas the Ruby Eyes Blade needs only four-five years to completely control, and I have done so. Can your spell's wild power overcome my skill of my spell? We shall see! En garde, Lina!"

With that, Black charged at Lina, swinging his powerful red blade.

Lina rushed in with her own retaliatory blow.

The spells connected with each other, unleashing a terrible wave of dark power all across the battlefield. Everyone on all sides were pushed back by a mighty wind, and all had to struggle to remain on their feet. Around the two combatants, the very air seemed to catch fire.

Lina was confident of victory however. She knew of Dameon's skill with the Ruby Eyes Blade spell, and she knew that it could not hope to match the Ragna Blade. In fact, Lina had been there when her former friend had first learned the spell.

It had been about three weeks into their relationship, when Lina, Naga, and Dameon had been hired to bring down a crazed sorcerer who spent his days turning tourists into ferrets, then trading said ferrets to other tourists for chicken livers. The loony old-bat had been child's play to defeat, but the interior of his cave-home had greatly impressed the trio. Piles of gold and precious magic objects had literally carpeted the floor of the grotto, and amongst the spoils had been an extremely rare spellbook on high-level black magic spells.

The three had actually gotten into a fight to decide who would be the first to read the book- a dispute which had finally been settled with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Dameon had won. Unfortunately, the young man had only gotten as far as learning the Ruby Eyes Blade and one other spell before the insane wizard's poorly timed fail-safe spell kicked in; causing the entire cavern and everything in it (minus people) to explode and turn to dust thirty minutes after the old fruitcake's death.

The Ruby Eyes Blade had originally been created as a lower-grade substitute for the legendary Ragna Blade- drawing upon the power of Ruby Eyes Shabranigdo rather than the Lord of Nightmares. It was indeed an incredibly powerful spell, with destructive power equaling that of the Dragon Slave; though it could only be used at close range. Further setbacks included the incredible drain on one's pool capacity for sustaining it for more than a few seconds, and that it required a great amount of practice in order to master it, and thus use its full powers.

The Ragna Blade, however, did not require practice to master it; one only needed to know and understand the true nature of the Lord of Nightmares, and integrate that knowledge into the incantation accordingly to access the blade's full power. What is more, the Ragna Blade was so powerful that it could even slice through time and space. Something with such raw power could easily overwhelm just about anything else that stood in its path.

Clearly, Dameon did not know what Lina knew about the Ragna Blade. No one but the crimson-haired girl did, because no one else could wield it.

As the two mighty spells collided, a thought crossed Lina's mind. Perhaps she should go easy on Dameon. Maybe she could let him off the hook just this once. Perhaps he could learn from this experience.

The sorceress dismissed the thought immediatley.

A man who Lina respected very much had once told the sorceress that humans were creatures of the present and the future, but not creatures of the past. That man had also said that, "Though we can- and indeed we should- learn from the past, we cannot be bound to it. We humans must live out our present lives while looking with hope to the future, and we cannot do so while being slaves to the things that we cannot change."

At last Lina knew what that wise teacher had meant. She had to let go of her past feelings for Dameon. He had proven to her to be nothing more than another crazed criminal who had to be stopped at all cost. She could not hold back.

Lina gritted her teeth and forced back her tears as she prepared to kill Dameon Black.

A blinding flash. A miniature explosion. A scream of pain unlike anything she had ever heard before. Lina opened her eyes.

Dameon was lying doubled up on his knees, his left hand clutching at the bloody, half-cauterized crater on the right side of his chest. A bloody arm lay some feet away. The young man was the source of the horrendous screaming. It was a sound that Lina would remember for many years afterwards.

As soon as their blades had crossed, the sorcerer had immediately known that he could not hope to win. In the hopes of surviving, he had put all of his remaining energy to form a barrier, then jumped back as far and as hard as he could. However, the barrier had been of absolutely no help, and the jumping was the only that had saved him from death. Obviously, his arm had not been so lucky.

Lina looked on in horror at the bloody carnage that she had inflicted. Normally, her attacks left either smoking corpses or nothing left at all. Only rarely was there any blood. What is more, this was the first time that she had ever managed to successfully strike a living human with the Ragna Blade. The damage that she had caused terrified her.

Then, to greater horror, Dameon's cries of agony began to degrade into horrible sobs, then changed suddenly into terrible laughter. The sorcerer's gray eyes lit up with ecstasy as he roared with hideous, maniacal laughter.

"Yes! Yes!" the madman giggled gleefully as he clumsily came to his feet, "Yes! This is the power that I've been searching for! Such magnificent power! Come Lina! Join with me! With our combined power, nothing in this world can hope to stop us!"

"Ha! You poor, diluted fool!" Naga suddenly declared arrogantly with one of her horrendous laughs.

"Deluded!" Zelgadis corrected as he covered his sensitive ears.

"Yes, diluted, that's what I said."

"No, it wasn't- never mind."

"As I was saying," Naga resumed, "You are a fool, Dameon! Lina's just blown your arm away, and you still expect her to join you? Then am I to assume that you still intend to ask me as well, when you can't even defeat Lina Inverse!? How absurd!"

With that, Naga began to laugh again.

There was a subtle movement from Zelgadis' right leg, and Naga's laughter abruptly changed into yelps of pain as she held her left foot while jumping up and down with the other.

"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia yelled.

Zelgadis, who had begun whistling innocently about half a second before Naga's sudden foot injury, stopped whistling and looked over at his friend with a passive, guiltless expression on his face.

"What?" the chimera asked evenly.

Amelia groaned.

As Naga continued to hop about on her uninjured foot, the unfortunate former-princess soon found herself in-between both Lina and Dameon, who were both watching the scantily-clad woman's antics with a strange mix of annoyance and fascination. Now not five feet away from the one armed sorcerer, Naga could now see clearly that Dameon's wound was coated with flash-dried…

"Blood!" Naga gulped weakly.

With that, Naga the Serpent fell into a dead faint.

"Uh, what just happened?" asked a confused Goury.

"I dunno. She's never done that before," Amelia admitted.

"She faints at the sight of blood, Amelia," Lina sighed.

"She does!? Since when?"

"She's your sister! How could you not know that?" Zelgadis asked.

"It must have developed sometime after she left."

"She's done it for as long as I've known her," sighed Lina.

"Eh-hem!" Dameon cleared his throat loudly. Before he could say anything more, however, the dark sorcerer gave an involuntary groan and fell forward. A handful of his dark clerics rushed to catch their master and support him, while another picked up his severed arm.

"I'm far from defeated," Dameon finally croaked, "The skills of my clerics, combined with the power of the numerous magical artifacts that I have collected over the years, will not only allow me to have my arm reattached, but will also have me fighting fit by noon tomorrow- thirteen hours from now!"

Lina and her companions looked on in disbelief.

"So, I shall give you all a chance to rest and regain your strength. Especially you, Lina darling," Dameon crooned.

"Go to hell," Lina spat. With that, however, Lina fell to her knees and began to cough violently. Droplets of blood were thrown against the ground.

"Hmm, it seems that you can't hide how much power you lost with that last attack any longer," Black mocked, moments before he himself fell into a fit of bloody coughing.

Between coughs he said, "You all shall…give me your…final answers…in the morning. Be aware that if you…refuse, you shall all be killed. Until then you are all free to reside in…in the town hall with the…rest of the captives."

Then to his own men he gasped, "Make sure that our ch-charges get…double rations in the morning…especially those five. Now take…take me to my tent so…that I can rest…and be healed."

With that, Dameon Black's healers took their master and his arm away.

Without another word being said, Goury walked up and took his Lina into his arms as if she were a kitten. The mentally and physically exhausted sorceress only made a half-hearted attempt at protest as her protector carried her to the only building in the entire tiny village with lights. Dozens of frightened-looking villagers looked out sadly from said building, afraid that their final hope for freedom was gone.

Zelgadis slung the still-unconscious Naga unceremoniously over his shoulder and followed Goury. Amelia followed a short distance behind, shaking her head in an "What am I going to do with you?" kind of way at her older sibling.

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Note Part 2: **For those who may have been wondering why I am able to get these chapters put up so quickly is because I wrote this story several months ago, and it was shortly before I joined this site when I began to type and revise it. I have already written two other Slayers stories which I will eventually post, have one more currently in progress, and I'm planning on doing another one at a later date. All but one of these future stories is related in some ways to this one. I hope that you're all excited now! ^_^


	8. Chapter 8: Upon the Eve of Battle

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 8: Upon the Eve of Battle**

Lina sat glumly as she looked out the window of the town hall and into the night. She sighed deeply.

"Up again already?" Zelgadis asked as he sat himself down beside his irritable, red haired friend. "Its two in the morning, and you're going to need all the rest that you can get."

"Am I a bad person, Zelgadis?" Lina asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?" exclaimed the chimera, who promptly began to rub his ears to make sure that there was nothing in there affecting his hearing.

"You heard me," she repeated, still with the unusually soft voice.

"Well…," Zelgadis answered, pretending to have to think for several minutes.

"Hey!" Lina exclaimed with some of her old spark as she nudged the chimera as hard as she dared to.

"Well first off, I want to know why you asked that."

"I don't know," the sorceress sighed as she turned around to take in the cramped public building. Most of the townspeople were lying on worn, ragged blankets spread all about the hall, trying to sleep despite their growling bellies. Obviously the villagers had been poorly treated during their time as prisoners.

Only one of the villagers was still awake, an old man who had introduced himself as the village headmaster. He was sitting in a corner with pen and ink, writing into a small journal by candlelight.

About ten feet away lay Goury, Amelia, and Naga, all lying fast asleep on the floor.

Lina's gaze rested upon Goury for several moments before she continued.

"I guess…well, there's been a lot of things that I've done in my life," Lina finally continued, "And there are quite a few incidents that I'm not too proud of: I didn't believe Naga when I should have; I held onto false faith in Dameon for so long, even though I 'just knew' that he had betrayed me as well; the way I overreact all the time; all the people that I didn't help or didn't want to help just because they didn't have enough money; the way I treat you and the others sometimes; heck, I'm even starting to feel guilty about all the meals that I've made Amelia and Filia pay for.

"Most of all though, I'm sorry that I got everyone into this mess, that I'm putting you, Goury, Amelia, Naga, and all of these villagers in danger from that maniac and his motley crew."

"What are you talking about?" Zelgadis asked, quite astonished, but not wanting to show it. "We aren't in any danger. Rezo, Shabranigdo, Copy Rezo, Gaav, Phibrizo, ValGaav, DarkStar, and pretty much everyone else that its taken us more than thirty seconds to beat could wipe the floor with this wimpy little army, and we beat all of them."

"Yeah, but…"

"Look Lina," Zelgadis interrupted, "You may be manipulative, greedy, bossy, pushy, ill-tempered, impatient, stubborn…"

"Yes, I get the picture," the sorceress growled as the chimera smirked.

"…But those are just personality flaws. Having them, and even sometimes letting them get the better of you, doesn't make you a bad person.

"And when you want to be, you're also kind hearted, sympathetic, reliable, courageous, and even once-in-a-while self-sacrificing. And those are traits that only a good person can have."

"But…"

"And returning to the subject of you putting everyone in danger here, this is not your fault. Its Dameon's fault, and Dameon's alone. Do you understand?"

Lina nodded.

"Good," Zelgadis replied with a small smile, "Now stop stressing yourself out over little things. We need you in top shape."

"Hold up a minute," a voice suddenly said.

Lina and Zelgadis spun around and saw Naga standing before them.

"Sorry for eavesdropping," the former princess of Seyruun apologized- though she didn't seem very sorry, "But I was having a little trouble getting my beauty rest, and couldn't help but over-hearing…"

"You were just pretending to sleep to listen in," Zelgadis stated matter of factly.

"Call it what you like," the black haired sorceress replied.

Turning back to Lina, she said, "But in any case Lina, I think that you should just shut up with this whole 'Am I a good person, or a bad person?' garbage. Its not like you. You never used to worry about unimportant stuff like that."

Zelgadis groaned slightly in irritation.

"You used to be all: 'Cause more unnecessary stress in my life will you? Prepare to get the snot beaten out of you! Dragon Slave!' What brought on all this philosophical junk? Did you hit your head, or something? Or did you decide to go and join a convent while I was gone?"

"Look Naga…"

"I don't care, and I don't want to hear it! You've got work to do. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself, get off your sorry ass, and go kick some butt!"

Zelgadis stared, not quite sure what to make of the strange woman's speech. It did remind him vaguely of Amelia's famous justice speeches, but at least those were more… something, he didn't know what.

Lina, on the other hand, actually smiled in gratitude and amusement.

"Thanks, Naga," she said.

"Not a problem. After all, strong, intelligent, beautiful sorceress types like us need to stick together…"

Zelgadis and Lina rolled their eyes.

"…Even if your chest is flatter than a brick wall."

"Why, you!"

"Umm, excuse me," said a gravelly old voice.

Turning around, the trio saw that this time it was the village headmaster who was standing before them.

"Please forgive me for interrupting," the age-bent old man apologized, "But I couldn't help but overhear you all in your discussions. Am I mistaken in saying that you know Mr. Dameon Black?

"A long time ago," Lina admitted, "At least I thought that I did."

"And your intentions for him are?"

"Capture him and turn him in for whatever price is on his head," Lina answered with conviction, "Or, failing that, kill him."

The old man bowed and said, "I believe you, and my village and I will do whatever we can to help you to defeat our persecutor. Anything that you need, it will be at your disposal, though we have little left to our names."

"No, you don't need to-," Lina protested.

"I insist," the headmaster persisted. "And what is more, I have always prided myself on being a good judge of character. Though I have heard many things about you, Miss Inverse, and though I admit to having believed several of these rather unsavory rumors; after hearing you and your companions speak, and seeing for myself that you came to rescue us, I gladly admit that I was wrong. You truly are not the monster that some people have portrayed you to be. You and your companions spoke from the heart this night, and so I judge that you are, indeed, a good person."

"Err, wow, thanks," Lina stammered with a slight blush.

"And despite the rumors, I did actually have hope, if only a small one, that you would come to save us."

"Why's that?" Lina asked.

"Some time ago," replied the old man, "There was a man who stopped by this village while on his way to find a port that would take him to the Outer World. It was shortly after the Mazoku Barrier disappeared, I think. Anyway, he stayed here among us for some time before moving on, and during that time he would help us with our daily lives, no matter how small or unpleasant the job, and from this I judged that he was a man of honor and strong moral fiber. During his stay, this man would often speak of a girl he once knew, who had a strong core of goodness, and who was destined to do great things for this world, but was often accused of being an evil doer due to her bad-temper and other such bad habits. A girl called Lina Inverse."

Lina's eyes lit up at the old man's tale.

"And who was this man on a journey to explore the Outer Worlds?" she asked.

"He never gave us his last name," the headmaster replied, "He told us to simply call him Ralse."

Both Lina and Naga's eyes lit up in recognition of the name and character description. Zelgadis' ears perked up slightly, as he knew that the name was familiar and was trying to remember where he had heard it. However, the chimera was even more interested in the two sorceresses' reaction.

"That name means something to you?" asked the headmaster.

"Yeah," Lina admitted, "He was… a good friend."

"I see," the old man nodded, "It is a marvelous thing to have good friends, and you are lucky to have so many."

"Yeah," Lina agreed.

"Well, I shall go now." The old man said as he turned away. "My troubled heart has now been calmed, and I can rest peacefully this night. Pleasant dreams."

"Well?" asked Zelgadis, once his hearing confirmed that the headmaster's breathing was of one who is sound asleep.

"I'll tell you some other time," Lina replied, shaking her head. "Right now we should get some sleep. We've got a big day ahead of us."

"That's the truth!" Naga yawned, "Good night, Lina."

* * *

Several hours later…

"Sir!" one of the clerics to Shabranigdo said as he entered his master's tent, "Its time to check on your-,"

"Mmm! Don't tease me like that, ladies!" Dameon Black giggled pervertedly in his sleep. As the sorcerer rolled over, he flinched and rolled back to his original position from having put weight upon his magically restored arm, which was mummified with a cast and sling.

"Oh! Be gentle with me, girls," the black haired young man yelped as the pain influenced the dream.

"Umm, sir…?" the cleric said, half-embarrassed, and half-intrigued by the glimpse into his leader's subconscious.

"Oooh, Lina! You're so naughty! You too Naga!"

"Uh, sir?" the cleric tried again, this time putting a hand on his master's shoulder and shaking it slightly.

"Oh, my! Such magnificent…"

"SIR!" the cleric finally yelled into Dameon's ear.

The bandit leader yelled and jumped ten feet into the air. As Black attempted to gather his wits, he looked around his tent. At last his gray eyes settled upon his head healer, whose mouth was still slightly agape.

"What is it?" Black scowled, angry at having been interrupted from his pleasurable dream, "Are we being attacked?"

"No, sir," the cleric replied, his surprise now changing into mirth.

The dark priest bit his tongue and fought hard to hold back the laughter as he said, "Its just time to check on your wound."

"I see," Dameon answered, then started as he that his healer's face had begun to crack.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. "Was I talking in my sleep?"

"N-no…yes. Yes you were, sir," the cleric guffawed.

Black could feel his face become uncomfortably hot as he threatened, "D-don't you dare tell anyone!"

"O-of course not, sir," the cleric assured as he fought to regain his composure.

As the rogue priest began to undo his master's bandages to inspect the repaired arm's progress, he began to think of ways that he could use this incident to his advantage afterwards.

**To Be Continued...**


	9. Chapter 9: Showdown at High Noon

**Author's Note: **At last! Part one of the climactic final showdown!

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 9: Showdown at High Noon**

At noon of the second day, Lina and her group exited the village town hall-turned-slave quarters. Each one was rested, well-fed (they had reluctantly (even Lina) accepted food offered by the villagers from their rations), and ready to take down Dameon and his army of cutthroats.

Before the adventurers stood Dameon Black, his arm restored to perfect condition, and followed by the one hundred bandits, mercenaries, and other assorted criminals of his army.

"Lina!" Dameon declared as he posed dramatically, "Naga! The time has come for you and your friends to choose! Join me, or…"

At that moment, Black's attention was captured by the murmurings of some of his clerics amongst each other.

"Why did you wake him up, man?" one of the dark priests whispered rather loudly to one of his fellows, "I would have kept watching and seen where it went from there!"

"You're way too squeamish about these things man," another Shabranigdo cleric scolded, "And you call yourself a dark cleric to Lord Ruby Eyes?"

"HEY!" Dameon thundered at the clerics, "I'm trying to issue my last ultimatum here! And you! I warned you this morning not to yell anyone!!"

"I-uh-I, I didn't tell them about THAT, sir," the head cleric lied (poorly), "I was, uh, telling them about a spider that I squished… that was uh, eating a fly."

"I'll deal with you later," the sorcerer growled menacingly.

Turning back to Lina and her friends, Dameon cleared his throat and resumed his speech, "As I was saying, you have one final chance to join me! Refuse, and none of you will leave here alive! So then, my dear Lina, what is your answer?"

"Hmph. Are you kidding me?" stated Lina, "I annihilated you yesterday, and you're offering me to join YOU!? And on top of that, there's the fact that you burned me the way you did all those years ago. Putting all of that together, I'd say that the chances of me joining you are about as great as Prince Phil of Seyruun suddenly becoming a thirsty tyrant."

"And as for me," Naga laughed, "You'd have to be a fool to believe that the great Naga the Serpent would even consider working with someone like you!"

"And I'm afraid that playing henchman for a toad like you is rather way beneath me," Zelgadis put in.

"Those who desire world dominion are nothing but evil!" Amelia declared with another trademark justice pose, "And no true warrior of justice such as myself would ever consider thinking about, thinking about yes, that was intentional joining the likes of villains such as yourself! I, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, Princess of the Holy Kingdom of Seyruun, and Righteous Champion of Justice, shall smash you with the hammer of justice! Prepare to die, villain!"

"Oooookaaaay," Dameon sweated at the hyper-active princess' speech. The dark sorcerer glanced momentarily at Goury, but upon seeing the dark look that the swordsman was giving him, Black quickly moved on.

"I am so sorry, my dearest Lina. You too, Naga," Dameon said with a hint of genuine regret, "But I'm afraid that you leave me no choice. Goodbye, dear Lina Inverse. Go men! all!"

Just as the bandits began to draw their weapons and charge, however, Goury suddenly sprung forward at top speed.

"Just a minute!" the swordsman yelled with a determined look, "You haven't gotten my answer yet!"

Before anyone could react, Goury stopped right in front of Dameon, and slugged the dark sorcerer in the face as hard as he could.

A couple of y teeth could be seen flying from Black's mouth as the surprised sorcerer staggered backwards.

As the force of his strike brought his hand down near the hilt of his weapon, Goury grabbed a hold of his sword and drew it. The blade carved through flesh as it left its sheath, leaving a long and y- but purposely none too serious- slash wound across Dameon's abdomen.

Goury sprung back as his rival howled in pain.

"Sorry, Lina," the blond warrior apologized as he came to a stop by his dearest friend's side, "But I promised myself that I would get back at him for hurting you. But don't worry, that cut I gave him wasn't too serious. Now you can have him all to yourself!"

Lina smiled at this with true gratitude. The barest hint of a tear could be seen in her sparkling, ruby eyes.

"Thanks, Goury," she said, "You don't know how much what you did just now means to me. Thank you."

The swordsman merely smiled and nodded.

"Graaagh!" Dameon screamed, the combination of missing teeth, and mixed with saliva dripping from his mouth now making him look monstrous and deranged, rather than handsome and charming. "That's it! No more Mister Nice Guy! I've had it! I may have considered granting quarter before this, but no more! GO! KILL! Spare no one! ALL!"  
The bandit army rushed the heroes with a thirsty roar.

Zelgadis smiled as he drew his sword.

"This should be fun," the chimera said.

"Yeah," Goury nodded.

"The fools!" Naga declared with one of her trademark laughs, "Thinking that mere overwhelming numbers can stand up to the great Naga the Serpent and her minions!"

"Excuse me?" exclaimed Zelgadis with an indignant frown.

"All right, fellow heroes!" an oblivious Amelia declared with another heroic pose, "Let us go forth and further the cause of justice!"

"Oh, boy," Zelgadis sighed, putting his face into his hand.

"Let's just get 'em already!" Lina declared as she drew her short sword.

"Alright!" Goury agreed.

"CHAAAARGE!" the Slayers yelled as they plunged into battle.

Just as the two forces were about to meet, Naga grabbed a hold of her sword, gave a war yell that any Amazon queen who have been proud of, gave her weapon a mighty tug and… failed to pull it out.

Everyone on both sides fell over.

"On, come on!" Lina yelled.

"The stupid thing's stuck!" Naga complained as she began tugging at the broad sword at her hips with both hands.

Lina sighed and turned to Zelgadis.

"Promise me something Zel," she said, "We must never let her meet with Martina."

"I'd rather become immortal and spend the rest of eternity getting gnawed on by DarkStar," the chimera agreed.

"Miss Lina! Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia objected, "My sister's not that bad!"

"Debatable," Lina replied, causing the younger to cry a bit. "But anyway, let's get this show on the road! MEGA BRAND!"

A large circle of earth exploded out from underneath a section of the bandit army, sending many sailing up high into the air.

"Arc Brass!" Zelgadis commanded, calling down a barrage of lightning.

The bandits screamed as they were electrocuted.

"Vu Vraimer!" called out Naga, summoning a golem from the surrounding landscape (and taking out some houses in the process). The stone, humanoid giant then proceeded to attempt to squish the now panicking criminals. Naga laughed her obnoxious howler monkey laugh as she watched the fun.

"Visfarank!" yelled Amelia. Instantly, the young warrior of justice's fists were enveloped in blue and white astral energy. Then the Seyruun princess began a high-power, close quarters assault upon the bandits, utterly destroying them with her incredible, magic-enhanced boxing prowess.

"Hyaagh!" Goury shouted as he hacked through the bandit ranks like a steel-bladed whirlwind.

The still numerous bandits' morale dive ed. Nearly all of them were ready to turn tail and retreat. But then…

"Dam Brass!"

A ball of green energy struck Naga's golem, rupturing its structural integrity and causing the massive construct to collapse (squishing a few more bandits in the process).

"Such childish tricks!" Dameon bragged as he lowered his arm after down Naga's golem. "Now I'll show you some real power! Summoners, bring forth the Lessers Demons!"

"Yes, sir!" several voices called out from the back of the bandit line, "Gu Ru Diva!"

There was a flash of black and purple light, and four dozen lesser demons materialized from the astral plane. The gorilla/wolf-like mazoku charged at the heroes on all-fours, blasting Flare Arrows from their mouths like dragon fire.

"Rune Flare!" yelled Naga, unleashing a hail of flaming projectiles from her upraised hands.

"Astral Break!" Zel called out as he fired a powerful beam of blue astral energy.

"Elmekia Lance!" shouted Amelia, hurling a thin energy projectile. Once the spell was a few feet away the princess added to the spell by calling out, "Break!" Instantly, the single lance split apart into several dozen weaker versions of itself.

With forty-eight angry roars and a deafening explosion, the Rune Flare volley slammed into the hoard of lesser demons, wiping more than half of them out in an instant. Another series of explosions shook the ground as Amelia and Zelgadis' attacks wiped out the rest of them.

By the time this display of power had been concluded, much of the bandit army was either unconscious or . As for those who were left, it was painfully obvious that they wouldn't need much convincing to flee.

"Alright, let's get rid of the rest of these goons!" Lina declared with an exhilarated grin. "Burst Rondo!"

"Wind Brid!" yelled Amelia.

"Flare Arrow!"

"Freeze Arrow!"

The bandit ranks were torn into by Naga's freezing shots, Zelgadis and Lina's burning projectiles, and Amelia's arrows of air. Though none of these spells were used with enough force to be lethal, they inflicted plenty of minor injuries and plenty of panic. The robbers' remaining courage gave out completely, and so they ran for their lives- a good number squealing like scared little s. So terrified were they that they didn't even bother to stop to open the gates. They just broke it down without even skipping a beat, and disappeared into the forest.

"COWARDS!" Dameon yelled from his spot on top of a building, well out of the line of fire.

Of the hundred men that had been under Dameon's command, now only seven remained: Four swordsmen and three sorcerers.

"Well," said Naga, "This seems like a rather dramatic way to end things."

"Indeed," replied Dameon as he hovered back down to the ground, "These are the remainder of the powerful warriors that I have collected for myself, and they are by far the best. Now go! Get them! And don't even worry about fair one-on-one battles! Just get rid of them!"

"As you command, my lord," answered one of the swordsmen, a slightly taller than average man in black and green armor. His face was hidden by a masked helm which covered everything but his eyes. Strapped to the deep-voiced man's back was a long scimitar of the thin-bladed style.

"Gaaldur!?" exclaimed Lina, suddenly recognizing the knight.

Naga's eyes lit up in recognition as well.

"Ah, Ms. Lina," the knight said as he turned to face the sorceress, "I was wondering if you and Ms. Naga would recognize me. How unfortunate that we must meet once more under such circumstances."

"Do you know that person?" asked Amelia.

"I met him once…," Lina confessed reluctantly, "Although the situation that we met under was a little…"

"…Embarrassing," Naga finished.

"Yes, if you have not already told your compatriots the story," the dark knight called Gaaldur said, "Then it would probably be best if it remained that way."

"Agreed," Lina and Naga nodded in unison, shuddering as memories of the pathetic noble Jeffrey and his terrifying mother Lady Josephine flashed inside the two sorceress' minds.

"Sooo then," one of the sorcerers, a short man with fang-like teeth and a much-too long hooded cloak, said with an annoying, raspy voice, "You know the faaamous Lina Inverse, Gaaldur?"

"Hey, I know you!" exclaimed Naga, "You're that jellyfish sorcerer guy from Mipross!"

"Ah! So my reputation proceeds me!"

"Not really, Lina and I just ran into you once and beat you up because you were bothering us."

"D'oh!" the tiny man exclaimed, then demanded, "What are you talking about!? I've never run into any of you before!"

"Uh, Naga," Lina reminded, "Don't you remember? This guy had been working for Joyrock, and when we went and changed the past and killed Joyrock, that made it so that all of that never happened. In short: We never did fight him because Joyrock didn't survive his attack on the elves."

"Oh, uh, right," Naga said, slightly puzzled, "I don't entirely get it, but I think I understand enough that I know what you mean."

Everyone else on both sides looked on in complete confusion.

"All right then, so it will be a pleasure to defeat you again for the first time!" Naga declared, pointing at the short man.

"Oh, really?" he sneered.

Everyone else continued to look on in puzzlement. Lina joined them this time, but more out of annoyance than not knowing what was going on.

Finally, one of the other sorcerers broke the silence by clearing his throat and stepping forward.

"Well then, if we are going to go about being reintroduced to old acquaintances, then I might as well make myself known," the man said, drawing back his hood to reveal a handsome, yet bestial face. A dark aura surrounded the man's exposed skin, seeming to push back the majority of the sunlight.

"Oh, you're that one guy!" Lina declared, snapping her fingers as she tried to remember the man's name, "That vampire guy…"

"V-vampire?" Amelia stammered.

"Uh, Stan? Steve? Frankenstein? No… Stern?"

"Steindorf, you impudent mortal! My name is STEINDORF!"

"Oh, right. How's it going?"

"What do you mean how's it going!?!?" the vampire yelled angrily, "You beat me up, slapped me with a slipper, stole my treasure, tied me up, then dropped the roof of my labyrinth on me while trying to get away! How do you think I'm doing!?!?"

"So, not bad then, all things considered?"

The vampire fell over in annoyance.

"Excuse me! Can we socialize later!?" Dameon yelled.

"Yes, I suppose that we should continue on with this battle," Gaaldur sighed. "You are, after all, the master- for now."

Turning to the rest of Dameon's elite, Gaaldur said, "I'm on the blond one. Ignasius, cover me. Vima, back up Volranus.. Joshal and Grimm, help out anyone who needs it with your defensive powers, except for me. The rest of you, choose whoever you want as well."

"I don't remember anyone putting you in charge, mortal!" Steindorf hissed.

"I did," Dameon replied, summoning a ball of white energy and waving it about threateningly. "Now straighten up, vampire, or I'll dust you."

"Yes, sir," Steindorf replied, with eyes full of .

"Attack!" the dark knight Gaaldur called out as he drew his sword.

"Look's like we've got ourselves a battle!" Lina cheered. "Who's read to kick butt?"

"I'd say that we all are," Zelgadis replied as he drew his sword.

"I'm ready," said Goury as he unsheathed his blade and struck his battle pose.

"Let's go, Allies of Justice!" called Amelia.

"Watch out you bandits!" Naga laughed, "Or you might get a snake bite! Get it? Because I'm Naga the Serpent?"

Naga laughed her horrendous laugh once more, amused to no end by her own joke.

Everyone else fell over.

**To Be Continued...**


	10. Chapter 10: Boss Fights

**Author's Note: **I'm very sorry, but Thursday's chapter will definetly be a day or two late, unless by some miracle I wind up not having to go to school or work tommorow or Thursday. I hope that you enjoy this extra long chapter. Also, if anyone knows why it won't let me change Zelgadis' age from 30 to 20 on Chapter 2, I would really appreciate the help.

**Disclaimer: **Still *sniff* don't own *sob* Slayers. *runs off to cry again*

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 10: Boss Fights**

The opponents were lined up. Each one was ready to battle to the death for their own causes. The battle had now truly begun!

The dark knight Gaaldur and his ally Ignasius- an average sized man with large muscles, red armor, and a broadsword- charged at Goury. The blond swordsman jumped to the right to avoid Gaaldur's blade, then used his own weapon to parry Ignasius' sword.

As Goury and Ignasius pushed against one another in their blade lock, the dark knight came back with a blow from behind. Noticing the glint of steel in his peripheral vision, Goury broke the lock and jumped away once more, then came at Gaaldur with a retaliatory strike.

The dark knight managed to block his enemy's blow, leaving an opening for his comrade. Ignasius swept in for the kill.

Goury jumped back, dodging the red armored swordsman's slash. Immediately pushing off from the foot on which he had landed, the blond warrior launched himself forward once more and swung his hand-and-a-half sword.

Goury's strength and steel not only managed to cleave through the other man's armor and leave a horrendous slash wound up the warrior's chest, but Ignasius was also sent flying five feet into the air, and finally landing in an unconscious heap another twenty feet away.

"Impressive," Gaaldur complimented with genuine awe.

"Thank you," Goury answered with an exhilarated grin, "Ready for your turn?"

The dark armored warrior gave a low laugh, enamored by his opponent's skill and strength.

"Yes," Gaaldur answered, "I am ready! Show me your true power!"

The two swordsmen charged at one another once more.

Meanwhile, Lina dueled with the other two warriors: Vima and Volranus.

Vima was a female of slight build who wore orange and light blue armor, and held a nondescript longsword. Volranus, by contrast, was a big man with a suit of sand-colored armor that left his arms exposed to show off his bronzed skin and bulging biceps, and hefted a pair of oversized falchions. Both wore full-faced helmets that hid their faces, although Lina could see that Vima had sea green eyes, while Volranus' were like two lumps of coal. The girl also wore a long ponytail of golden hair which was pulled out through a slot in the back of her helm.

As the two mercenary's lunged at Lina, the red haired sorceress drew her shortsword. For once, she had absolutely no intention of using more power than was necessary. She was saving her full strength for Dameon.

Once her enemy was in range, Vima attempted an oddly unpracticed stab with her blade, which Lina was able to effortlessly parry. The much larger Volranus, however, proved to be no amateur, as he came down with his two blades with a veteran's skill.

The young sorceress jumped away without a second to spare. A small crater was formed by the big man's curved blades, right where Lina had been a moment before.

"Definitely can't play with this guy," Lina thought aloud, "Fireball!"

Just as the fiery projectile was about to hit, however, a fire-absorbing Balus Wall materialized in front of the huge bandit. The fireball struck the magical wall and detonated, but the flames and concussive force unleashed by the attack were instantly devoured and dispelled by the counter-spell. Volranus grinned behind his mask and gave a low chuckle at Lina's expression.

Risking a momentary glance behind her, Lina could see the two remaining Shabranigdo Priests, Johsal and Grimm, kneeled down next to the newly unconscious Ignasius. The two dark clerics had paused in their healing work, and now had their arms up raised- obviously the ones who had stopped the sorceress' attack.

"Ready to give up?" the large man laughed.

"You wish," Lina replied, "Mega Brand!"

The ground directly beneath Volranus exploded.

From out of the swirling dust and smoke, however, the girl Vima appeared and swung her blade with all of her might. Lina stopped the attack, and countered with a couple of cautionary blows of her own.

To Lina's continued puzzlement, the female mercenary seemed to have only a little more skill than an average swordsman, but with half the confidence. This certainly bothered her more than the fact that her opponent was several inches shorter than she was, though only because Lina herself was short for her age and so had figured that the other girl had wound up worse off than she had in that department.

"Kid! Out of the way!" a familiar, booming voice commanded from the cloud of dust left by Lina's last spell.

A completely unharmed Volranus now charged, his arms spread out to deliver a sweeping blow from each side.

Vima obediently pulled herself out of her superior's path, just as the large bandit came down with his attack.

Knowing that she had no chance of matching the rapidly approaching swordsman's strength (despite the incredible amount that she had for one of her size and build), Lina did about the only thing that she could do: She ducked.

As the two curved blades passed harmlessly over her head, the young sorcery genius came up with a plan. Her enemy was enough of a threat that she would have to take him out as swiftly and efficiently as possible. That, of course, meant the use of magic. However, all but her most powerful spells were useless, as Volranus had white magic users for back-up. But, said magic users could not, as had already been demonstrated, protect their charge from spells used at point blank.

Now in position, Lina pushed her body forward in a lunge that was half-leap, half sprint. Her shortsword was held at the ready.

The blade pierced the leather armor that protected Volranus' stomach, and the point even managed to enter a bit into the body itself. However, it was merely a flesh wound.

"Is that all you've got, Lina Inverse?" the big mercenary laughed.

Lina just laughed right back.

"Nope," she replied, "But its enough. DIG VOLT!"

Volranus gave a rare cry of pain as electricity began to flow through his body, channeled through Lina's steel blade and directly into his nervous system. After several moments of painful electrocution, the smoking (and amazingly still alive) mercenary dropped his swords, coughed out a mouthful of smoke, and fell to the ground.

"Well that was…" Lina began.

"…Easy? Don't count on it!" Vima yelled, coming at Lina from behind.

The sorceress/swordswoman was not so easily taken by surprise, however. With a near careless ease, Lina caught her opponent's hands, pushed back the blade, and delivered a sharp blow directly on the top of Vima's head.

As the dazed mercenary sank to her knees, Lina got to her feet and sheathed her sword. Muttering some words under her breath, the red head then gave her newest defeated foe's helmet a single sharp, two fingered rap, and the helm instantly split perfectly in half. Upon seeing Vima's face, however, Lina gasped.

The defeated girl who kneeled before Lina was just that: A girl. No more than thirteen or fourteen. The girl's face was a strange mixture of fear, innocence, and unyielding determination. However, the look in her eyes clearly showed that this was her first real battle, and the first time that she had been in situation in which her life was at stake. Lina briefly wondered if her own face had been like that during her first battle.

"Who are you? Lina demanded.

"I am Vima Sunlord," the girl replied in a strong, unquavering voice that would make any swordsman proud. "Apprentice, and youngest niece of my Lord Gaaldur, a former Imperial Knight of the Elmekian Empire before he was unjustly cast out for enjoying too much the way of the blade."

Lina was rather taken aback, both at the girl's absolute seriousness, her strict adherence to knightly formalities even in the face of what was clearly in the girl's mind certain death, and the fact that she was Gaaldur's niece. The fact that the dark knight had once been some sort of important, professional soldier for a powerful kingdom, however, was in no way surprising at all.

"Kill me if you must, Lina Inverse, Enemy of All Who Live," the girl continued, "But please, spare my master."

"Uh, I'm not going to hurt you, you know," Lina said in a somewhat exasperated tone.

"But isn't it true that you kill everyone that you defeat?" Vima asked, "And then devour their corpse and drink their blood?"

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT!?!?" screamed Lina, dismissing that notion that the girl followed knightly formalities strictly.

"You mean its not true?"

"Of course its not true! Why do so many people like to go around spreading rumors that make me sound like a demon!? Gaaah! Its as if some people have nothing better to do than to make my life miserable!!" And you: Haven't you ever heard that you shouldn't believe everything that you hear?"

"Isn't that a bit of a paradoxal statement?"

Lina groaned.

Meanwhile, Joshal and Grimm had just completed healing Ignasius. As the red armored warrior sat up with a groan, the dark clerics began to stand up to go and help Volranus.

"But sir, what should we do about Lina Inverse?" one of the two, Joshal, asked, "She's right next to him, and she'll no doubt take us out when we approach."

"Don't worry about it," replied Grimm, the head dark cleric, "We'll sneak up on Inverse, stab her in the back, kill the other brat if she takes offense, then take care of our large friend."

"But what about Gaaldur, and the boss? Won't they take offense if we start inflicting intentional friendly casualties?"

"Don't worry. They're not paying any attention to us."

This was true, as Dameon was at that moment observing the duel between Goury and Gaaldur, which had now become quite fierce.

"Kill Vima?" Ignasius objected, who was once again on his feet. "Murder a kid? You dirty scumbags!"

"Then make sure that she doesn't take offense when we kill Inverse," Grimm snapped, "Now come on."

"Oh, dear!" a pleasant-sounding voice suddenly said from behind the three, "This won't do at all!"

"What the-?" the three exclaimed as they began to turn back around.

Suddenly, all three were cracked over the head by what felt like a hardwood staff. The two clerics and the swordsman all crumpled to the ground and fell into unconsciousness.

"Now let's let the rest of this battle continue uninterrupted, shall we?" the voice mused to itself.

Naga and the tiny, hooded man called Sorcerer A continued to stand facing one another, posing dramatically and trying to look intimidating.

At last, Naga yawned and said, "This standing around is getting a little boring. Let's go ahead and start fighting."

"Hehe, as you wish!" the tiny sorcerer agreed.

"ZELAS GORT!" the two shouted simultaneously.

Five large, levitating jellyfish materialized upon each side of the field.

"Go!" the two combatants yelled.

The jellyfish flew at each other and began to grapple with one another, while their summoners cheered them on from the background. This continued for about five minutes until the two spellcasters finally realized that this wasn't going anywhere, as none of the jellyfish were inflicting any sort of damage.

"Oh, how embarrassing," Sorcerer A whined.

"Ha! You fell into my trap!" Naga lied as she wracked her brains on what to do next.

"Huh?"

"Dug Haut!" shouted the former princess, slamming her palm down onto the ground.

Sorcerer A barely managed to get up and into the air and avoid being impaled by the giant spike of stone that shot out from underneath him.

"Burst Rondo!" the small man yelled, sending out a spray of fire energy orbs.

"Freeze Arrow!" Naga countered, firing a volley of icy arrows.

The two spells collided with a loud bang, creating a small cloud of fog.

"Huh? Where did she go?" Sorcerer A wondered aloud as he attempted to see through the mist, "Where did she-?"

"Van Rail!"

Suddenly, the fog began to grow unbearably cold. A crystalline spiderweb began to form from the blanket of moisture, surrounding the small man and covering him in ice.

With a loud thud, a large frozen cube crashed into the ground, with the screaming body of Sorcerer A entombed within.

Naga laughed and then taunted, "You have to get up pretty early in the morning to out-think Naga the Serpent!"

Then she laughed some more.

Simultaneous with Naga's battle with Sorcerer A, Amelia was faced with the vampire Steindorf.

"How did this happen?" Amelia groaned.

"That is a good question, as I myself was after either the red head or the black haired bimbo."

"Don't call my sister a bimbo!" Amelia objected, "And you should consider yourself lucky to be battling me, as any of the others would crush you in an instant!"

"Oh, really?" the vampire chuckled, "So, does that make you weak, then?"

"Errr…,"

Steindorf chuckled once more, then said, "Prepare yourself mortal, for you have never tasted true fear until now! I shall drink your blood, and make you into one of my minions!"

"Oh, yeah?" Amelia objected, "Well prepare YOURSELF, vile creature of the darkness! For I am Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, guardian of peace, and love, and justice! I shall call down the power of divine judgment against your wicked, evil, undead self, and scatter your ashes to the winds! Now prepare to be destroyed with the swift sword of justice!"

"Hmm, such a hot blooded mortal would make a tasty dish," the vampire mused as he hungrily licked his lips.

Amelia paled visibly at the pronouncement.

"Now, die!" Steindorf yelled, and lunged after the princess with inhuman speed.

"Gaaah! Go away! Lighting!"

Steindorf lifted his cloak to shield his eyes from the blinding light which radiated from Amelia's palm.

"Pacifist Crush!" Amelia yelled, flying in with one of her father's trademark, oxymoronic physical attacks.

With the lightning reflexes of the vampire, Steindorf grabbed Amelia's fist, and threw the girl high up into the air.

"Flare Arrow!" the vampire yelled, forming a flaming arrow in his hand, and hurling it at the princess.

"Balus Wall!" countered the now levitating Amelia, stopping the attack with an anti-fire barrier spell.

"Freeze Arrow!"

Amelia dive bombed down to the ground to dodge the airborne icesicle.

"Shadow Web!" she shouted as soon as she hit the ground. Over a dozen dark tendrils shot out from the princess' own shadow and sped towards Steindorf, attempting to freeze the vampire in place by ensnaring his shadow.

The spell failed completely, however. This was, of course, because vampires don't cast shadows.

"Bwhahahahahaha!" Steindorf laughed, "You idiot! Don't you know that we of the mighty vampire race posses no shadows? Only a foolish mortal like yourself could-"

"Megiddo Flare!"

The vampire was suddenly engulfed by a beam of pure, White Magic energy. With a final scream, Steindorf faded away and was turned to dust.

"I kinda did forget that," Amelia admitted sheepishly to herself. "Oh, well. It worked as a pretty good distraction."

Then with a justice pose, she raised up her hand in a V and shouted, "Hurray! Victory!"

Simultaneously with Naga and Amelia's battles…

Zelgadis and his opponent stood facing one another. The two continued to stand and stare, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" the sorcerer sneered, "Scared?"

"I was actually just about to ask you the same thing," replied Zelgadis.

"Fine, be that way!" the sorcerer retorted, to Zelgadis' confusion, "I shall make the first move!"

This last of Dameon's servants was a man of average height, and wore magenta robes with gold embroidery. A golden medallion with a large, gleaming black stone hung from around his neck, and in his hand was a staff of black ebony.

"Prepare yourself, chimera!" the man declared as he stabbed his staff into the ground, "For you have never before seen skill in the art of summoning like mine! My name is Gladus: The King of Summoning! Remember that name, for it shall be the last one that you shall hear!"

"Oh, really?" Zelgadis replied, "Well I am Zelgadis Graywords: The Heartless Mystical Swordsman! And I suggest that you remember _that_ name, because it's the last one that _you'll_ hear."

"Fine then," Gladus answered, "Let us begin!"

"Finally," Zelgadis said under his breath.

Gladus raised his free hand and chanted:

"Come forth from my home,

Terrible beast of my creation:

Vu Chi Tera!"

Lines of energy shot forth from the base of the summoner's staff, moving outwards and taking the shape of a summoning circle before him. Finally, there was a brilliant flash of light, and a squat, three headed reptilian with heads like that of a snake or a dragon appeared.

"Hmph, a spell to summon a chimera that you made," Zelgadis commented, "Am I supposed to be impressed by that? Blade Haut!"

With that, Zelgadis slashed his sword through the empty air from above his head down to the ground. A blade of energy immediately sprung up from where the tip of the chimera's weapon had touched the ground, and sped towards the hideous alchemical creation. The monstrous creature was instantly split in half.

"Fireball," Zelgadis commanded, incinerating the monster's remains with a wave of his hand.

Gladus' eyes opened wide with terror at the sight of his opponent's great power.

C-come forth, my imprisoned spirit!" the sorcerer commanded as he took hold of his medallion and raised it high into the air. "Slay my foe, and earn your freedom!"

A flash of black light shined forth from Gladus' amulet, and suddenly a gray-armored creature covered in sharp spikes, and a hand with four sword-like fingers appeared.

"Sealing a low-level mazoku into a medallion," Zelgadis commented without sarcasm, "Now I am impressed."

"You better be telling the truth this time," the demon growled at his summoner with a gravely voice, "About me earning my freedom. Because if not, then things are going to get very… unpleasant."

"Yes, yes! Just kill that guy!" Gladus shouted.

"My pleasure."

"Blam Blazer!" Zelgadis yelled, launching a shining blue orb of astral energy at the demon.

The mazoku laughed as he slashed through the orb with ease. Then the creature charged and locked blades with Zelgadis.

The chimera grunted with effort, surprised by the amazing physical prowess of the low-level demon.

However, Zelgadis' strength of mind was no less than that of his physical, sword, and magical strength. Quickly coming up with a plan, the chimera swiftly to put his strategy into action.

The chimera suddenly leapt back, causing the surprised mazoku's bladed hand to plow into the ground. Then Zelgadis spun about and slashed diagonally through his monstrous foe.

However, the ordinary steel blade passed harmlessly through the creature's body.

"Idiot," the demon chuckled, "I am a mazoku! I cannot be harmed by any ordinary weapon! What a joke you turned out to be!"

The chimera's only response was a confident grin and the words, "Astral Vine."

Instantly, Zelgadis' blade turned crimson as it was enveloped in concentrated energy from the astral plane. Swiftly rotating his weapon in a half-circle until it was back in its original position, he repeated his attack from before, slicing his foe from hip to shoulder. This time, however, the attack worked.

The armored mazoku gave a dying groan as his body on both the astral and the physical side disintegrated into nothingness.

The summoner Gladus, however, had not been unprepared for this eventuality. During the course of this short battle, he had begun to sketch a high-powered summoning circle into the ground with his staff. As Zelgadis began to approach, the magician swiftly chanted his spell. With another flash of dark light, a creature was pulled from the depths of the astral plane. This time, however, it was a mid-level mazoku shaped like a monstrous, humanoid crocodile.

"What mortal dares to call me forth from the astral side!?" the enraged mazoku demanded as he turned towards his summoner with a dangerous glare.

"I- LOOK OUT!" the summoner shouted suddenly, pointing at something behind the monster.

The demon turned, but only had time to widen his eyes in surprise before an airborne Zelgadis came down with a hail of powerful slashes from his still-enchanted sword. As the mazoku screamed in pain and struggled to hold his heavily-damaged astral body together, the chimera sheathed his blade and thrust his hands forward.

"Raa Tilt!" Zelgadis shouted.

The mazoku gave one last scream as he was engulfed by the mighty pillar of flaming, blue astral power.

Realizing that he was far outclassed, Gladus dropped his staff and fled. However, Zelgadis was at the man's side in an instant, and knocked the summoner into unconsciousness with a single punch.

"That was entertaining," Zelgadis mused.

The clash of swords quickly caught the chimera's attention, however, and Zelgadis turned just as Goury struck a final blow against his opponent, Gaaldur. With a loud _snap_, the dark knight's scimitar broke in half, and the mercenary warrior was thrown several feet backwards.

"What incredible skill in one so young!" Gaaldur cried in awe, "Such awesome power!"

"Pitiful," Dameon spat. "I guess that I'll have to finish this myself."

The duels with Black's greatest minions were over. Victory was in sight. But first, it was time for the last showdown of the Battle of Calthor.

**To Be Continued...**


	11. Chapter 11: Dameon's Fall! The Fierce an

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the lateness everybody. I'll try and get the next chapter up Sunday. Some things I would like to point out though: I realize that the way Blast Ash is used in this chapter is not the way it is really used, but its usual effect I didn't think would really serve my purpose, so I changed it a bit. My second excuse for this is that it is a new variation of the spell created by Dameon. Kind of like how Blast Bomb can be used as a barrage of super-fireballs, or as a fire cyclone like Xellos did in Next; or how Flare and Freeze Arrow have a single shot and a multi-shot variation. Finally, I would like to point out that the Arc Rod spell is my own creation, and that I completely invented the incantation for the Blast Bomb, as the spell's true Chaos Words are not known, and I felt that the moment called for the use of some. Anyway, please enjoy the penultimate chapter of Slayers Reconcile!

**Disclaimer: **Although I did invent some stuff for this chapter, Slayers does not belong to me.

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 11: Dameon's Fall: The Fierce and Blazing Battle**

"Time to finish this, Dameon," Lina said softly, sadly.

"Indeed," the traitor agreed, though the only regret in his voice was that of lust denied.

"Guys," said Lina as she turned to her friends, "Get the villagers out of here now. This is probably going to be pretty destructive.

"Gaaldur, you and Vima better get out of here, and take your friends with you as well."

"Yes, Mistress Lina," Gaaldur bowed as he and Vima grabbed Ignasius and Volranus. Then the dark knight and his niece turned and fled.

Lina turned back to face Dameon.

"Lina…," Gourry hesitated, unwilling to leave his dearest friend to face an enemy alone.

"Its okay, Gourry," Lina replied with a reassuring smile, "Everything's going to be alright."

Gourry stood silently for a moment, then nodded.

"Right," the swordsman replied. "Take him down Lina."

With that, Gourry Gabriev turned to join with the others, who had begun to head back towards the town hall.

As he watched all of this unfold, Dameon's face began to twist with unmasked hatred and jealousy, as his gray eyes focused upon Gourry.

"DIE!" yelled Dameon, "ABYSS FLARE!"

A pillar of intense, white hot flames shot out from the sorcerer's hands straight at Gourry.

"Gourry! Watch out!" Lina called, attempting to jump in the way.

Suddenly, a barrier formed in front of the swordsman, neutralizing the magical fire with ease. Standing in between Gourry and the barrier was Naga the Serpent.

"That's not very nice, Dameon!" Naga taunted with one of her signature laughs.

"Naga…" Lina started, temporarily rendered speechless.

"No need for thanks, Lina-chan!" Naga replied.

"Gracia, are you alright?" called Amelia.

"Sure, I'm fine. Just go!"

Then, turning to Lina, Naga said, "I know that you wanted to take down Dameon yourself, Lina. But I must remind you that I owe him a bit of pay back as well. So, you won't mind if I help out a bit, do you?"

Lina sat still for a moment. Then a grin crossed her face as she said, "Sure. Just don't get in my way."

"You got it!" answered Naga, taking her side by her friend.

"Let's go," Zelgadis said, leading Gourry and Amelia away to rescue the villagers.

"Alright, now to pay you back for that cowardly attack on Gourry!" Lina declared, "Val Flare!"

Dameon took to the sky in an effort to avoid the massive fire spell. However, the shockwave from the explosion managed to strike him, and send the sorcerer tumbling out of the sky.

"Freeze Arrow!" Naga declared, firing off several icy arrows.

"Flare Arrow!" Dameon retaliated as he fell, creating several small puffs of fog as the spells canceled each other out.

"Icicle Lance!" Lina declared, firing a long spear of ice towards where Dameon would soon land.

The dark sorcerer was not was easily defeated however. Casting Levitation at the last moment, Black stopped himself, then instantly shattered the oncoming icicle with a Diem Wind.

"You were wrong yesterday, Lina," Dameon taunted, "I have gotten stronger. Just watch! Burst Flare!"

Lina and Naga blasted into the sky as one of the most powerful fire spells blasted a huge section of village.

"The villagers! Amelia!' Naga yelled.

"Gourry! Zel!" Lina called.

Their fears were ungrounded, though. As the flames passed away, Zelgadis and Amelia lowered the enormous barrier that they had erected.

"Go! Go!" the chimera called.

Swiftly, the hundred terrified refugees and their three protectors began to make for the gate.

"Fireball!" Lina yelled, hurling her signature over-charged ball of flame at her former love.

"Aqua Create!" Black countered, disintegrating the flames with a blast of water.

"Freeze Rain!" Naga called.

"Naga! What are you doing! No!" Lina yelled as the busty sorcerers let loose one of her many faulty, invented spells.

A giant ball of ice formed in the sky, over twenty feet above the battlefield. Then icicle spikes began to shoot out of the ball relentlessly, one after the other, after the other.

Lina and Dameon both began to dance about to avoid the indiscriminately firing spikes. Naga also had to dance to avoid perforation, though she laughed while the other two screamed.

"Fireball! Flare! Arrow! Val Flare!" Lina and her enemy shouted together, blasting the ice ball apart and ending the deadly rainfall.

"What is wrong with you!?" the two shouted together at Naga.

Naga merely laughed in response. Then she suddenly attacked.

"Mega Brand!"

The ground exploded out from underneath both Lina and Dameon.

Naga laughed once more as she declared, "Revenge is sweet!'

Lina flew over and punched her friend in the head.

"You idiot! We're supposed to be working together!"

"Well that's never stopped you from blasting me along with the bad guys before, you know!" Naga shouted back.

"Never mind that now! Let's just get going!"

"Alright then, fine."

Then together they chanted:

"You who crosses between sky and earth,

Gently flowing water,

Gather in my hand and give me power:

Demona Crystal!"

A large icy mist swiftly formed along the ground and flew towards Dameon. A barrier of wind was brought up, and half a second later a huge field of ice exploded into existence.

"Vice Flare!" Lina yelled.

"Bram Gash!" Naga commanded.

A humongous, fiery lance and over a dozen of tightly compressed air sped towards the igloo-like lump that had been Dameon's Windy Shield. The spells struck with an ear-shattering explosion.

Dameon arose from the small crater, his body bleeding and blistered in several spots. The sorcerer glared angrily as his fists sparked with electricity.

"So, you want to play rough, huh?" he snarled, "Well that's okay with me! Try out this spell that I just perfected! Arc Rod!"

A yellow whip of lightning flashed into existence with a loud whip-crack. With great skill, Dameon flew towards Lina and lashed out with his whip. The red headed sorceress tried to fly out of the way, but her foot was caught in the whip's coils.

Lina screamed as her nervous system was flooded with volt after volt.

"Chaos String!" Naga commanded.

Ten purple threads of energy shot out from her fingers and snaked over to several coils of rope that were lying beside a nearby house. The energy threads entered into the ropes and took possession of them. Now in control of the ropes, Naga made them move around and snag Dameon from behind, shaping them into a crude noose.

Black recoiled and snapped his whip back and forth as he began to choke, releasing Lina.

"Thanks, Naga," Lina panted, slowly and painfully pulling herself to her feet.

At that moment, Dameon at last managed to cut the ropes with his lightning whip, freeing himself from strangulation.

"Bam Rod!" Lina shouted while charging forward, forming a long whip of red fire energy in her hand.

Dameon flew into the air with a Levitation spell, and Lina followed him furiously. The air was filled with the furious snapping and cracking of whips as the two combatants attacked each other with a vengeance. At last, the two whips struck became entangled with one another. Energy crackled violently as the fire and lightning intermingled, then finally reacted and exploded.

Both Lina and Dameon were thrown backwards. Naga quickly followed them into the air.

"Blast Ash!" Dameon bellowed once he had managed to reorient himself, "Blast Ash!"

The two sorceresses moved quickly to dodge the two deadly, gray-colored black magic spells. One of them hit the ground and did nothing. The other hit a tree, which instantly collapsed into a pile of ashes.

"Dynast Brass!" Lina commanded, summoning the power of Dynast Grausherra to cast one of the high black magic spells.

Red-gold lightning in the shape of a pentagram formed around Black, then surged inwards.

This time it was Dameon who screamed as his body was overcome with by the deadly power.

"Dolph Strash!" Naga commanded, letting loose a spear-like shockwave formed from the power of Deep Sea Dolphin.

However, Dameon had recovered enough from the near-fatal Dynast Brass to create a shield. The explosion from the two spells meeting sent the dark sorcerer flying backwards several feet.

"Dynast Breath!" Black screeched, letting loose a wave of ice which threatened to envelope both Lina and Naga from all sides.

Lina's talismans glowed as she shouted, "Zelas Brid!"

A multi-colored ribbon of energy flowed out from Lina's upraised index finger. The sorceress then commanded her invented black magic spell to encircle herself and Naga from all sides, improvising her normally-offensive spell as a defense against being turned to ice. Upon contact with the Dynast Breath, the spell exploded violently.

When the mist cleared, it could be seen that both women had taken heavy damage from the blast, though they were at least still alive. Lina had been hit especially hard, and was momentarily dazed. Naga held her small friend in her arms so that the red head would not fall.

"How touching," Dameon panted, "Now you can both die together! Hell Blast!"

A spear of dark energy flew from Dameon's fingertips with lightning speed, straight at the two girls.

Gritting her teeth in preparation, Naga did the one thing that she could think of at the moment. She saved Lina.

"Lina!" Naga yelled, throwing her friend her friend right up in front of her, like a lone baseball player throwing a ball up into the air in preparation for a practice bat.

"Wake up!" she ended, high kicking Lina in the side as she came back down and sending her up several more feet. This also awoke the sorceress from her daze.

"Naga! What the hell was that-!"

Naga merely smiled up at her friend before she was violently struck through the back and out through the chest by Dameon's spell.

"NAGAAAAAAA!"

Naga the Serpent began to plummet to the ground, rendered unconscious by the amount of life force that had been sucked out by Dameon's black magic spell.

Lina prepared to dive after her falling friend, well aware that this was what Black was counting on. She did not care, though.

Before Lina could dive, though, a man in a black cape with purple hair and a staff suddenly materialized out of thin air and caught the falling Naga.

"Xellos!?" Lina yelped.

"You!" Dameon declared.

"Hello, Ms. Lina! Mr. Dameon!" Xellos replied pleasantly. "My, my, what a ferocious battle this is turning out to be! Former friends now turned bitter rivals! Both sides out for blood! Ahh, how invigorating!"

"What are you doing here?" Lina demanded reflexively, and instantly regretting it.

"That, of course, is a secret," Xellos answered, pleased with himself as he fed off of Lina's irritation at the catch-phrase. "As for what I am doing right here, right now, saving Ms. Gracia: Well, I just thought that you might need a little help."

"Well, whatever your reasons Xellos, thanks," Lina answered. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm glad that you're here."

"My, this certainly is a day for acting out of character," Xellos mused. "Oh, well. I'll just take Ms. Gracia to Ms. Amelia so that she can get patched up. Knock him dead, Ms. Lina!"

"I intend to," Lina replied as Xellos and Naga teleported away.

"What was that just now?" Dameon demanded.

Lina raised up her index finger, and said in a deadly, serious voice, "That's a secret."

Suddenly, Lina drew her sword and dashed at Black with full speed.

"Flare Lance!" Dameon shouted, taken by surprise.

Lina merely spun out of the way, then suddenly disappeared from view.

"What the-?" Black started.

A drawn-out yell from above that sounded strangely like "Slipper," alerted Dameon of the attack from behind. Black spun around and caught Lina's shortsword, using a cushion of magical energy to protect his hands from the blade. The blade which was held in her left hand!

Before he could react, Lina completed her true assault.

"… Slap!" she shouted, smacking Dameon in the face with a slipper with explosive force. The dark sorcerer was sent speeding into the ground below.

"Ow," Black groaned as he picked himself out of the small crater that he had created. "How humiliating."

"This next one won't be," Lina replied as she sheathed her sword aligned her talismans once more.

"Lord of the four worlds,

Grant me all the power that you possess."

While still levitating high in the air, Lina cupped her hands and aimed them down at her former friend.

"Great spirits of the sun and flame,

Mighty power of the infinite heat.

I call thee now,

Gather into my hands,

And purify the land of my foe.

Let loose your mighty power,

Set the earth aflame,

And incinerate all within our path:

BLAST BOMB!"

A large ball of red and white flame formed within Lina's hands. Then a hundred smaller spheres shot of the larger one like a machine gun. The balls spread out as they were released, each one packed with enough power to match a Vice Flare. As each one struck the ground, a large crater was blown into the ground, and globules of fire were thrown all bout.

"Windy Shield!" Dameon yelled, summoning a large chunk of his remaining strength to create an orb of protective wind. Shortly afterwards, two of the falling bombs struck the shield simultaneously, and detonated with a ground-shaking roar.

Within moments, the entire village was lost in a cloud of smoke and flame.

Lina gently lowered herself to the ground and took a deep breath. Her whole body was sore, and her limbs ached. She barely had the strength to move his arms from casting so many powerful spells consecutively, and yet her mind was not at all worn out. In fact, it was clear, calm. As if the worst of her memories had finally been put to rest.

"Well," she said softly, "I guess its over."

"Not quite," an angry voice declared.

Lina started as Dameon staggered out of the smoke.

The sorcerer was quite the worse for wear, as his body was now covered in bruises, sores, smoke, ash, and plenty of burns. His cape, most of his shirt, and much of his pant legs had been burned off, as were his eyebrows and quite a bit of his hair.

Lina nearly busted a gut laughing at the ridiculous spectacle that the once-handsome man made. Dameon merely growled angrily while slowly drawing a knife from within his remaining boot.

Once she had control of herself again, Lina turned to her former friend, smiled, and said, "Actually, I'm kind of glad that you did survive that, Dameon. I was just thinking that that battle was kind of incomplete.

"What do you mean?" a puzzled Dameon asked.

Lina grinned as she answered, "I haven't gotten to use my Dragon Slave yet."

Dameon's face paled.

"Y-you have enough power left for one of those? You're bluffing!"

"Am I?" Lina asked as she began to summon up the very last of her strength.

Dameon had never felt fear like this before. As he watched Lina chant the words, and felt her power level spike, his heart began to quicken, and ice-cold sweat ran down his face and arms. His sharp breathing changed from that of an exhausted man to that of one who is faced with complete annihilation.

He knew what the spell was capable of. Only about a dozen or so people in the whole world had the bucket capacity to use it. Although Dameon himself could not use it (though barely), his uncle could; and he had once watched in awe as his mother's brother had wiped out a swarm of brass demons with it. Dameon had also been scared witless when he had first seen how easily, and how frivolously Lina used it. He had even been unintentionally been caught in the blast of one more than a few times. However, he had never before been in a situation where he had been blasted with one without any power left, and he had never before actually had one shot _at_ him.

Dameon ran for it.

"Darkness beyond twilight,

Crimson beyond blood that flow.

Buried in the stream of time,

Is where your power grows.

I pledge myself to conquer,

All the foes who stand,

Before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands.

Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed,

By the power you and I possess:"

Lina paused in her chanting as she was suddenly hit with a wave of fatigue. The energy ball within her hands flickered and threatened to go out. Grasping at the very last of her strength, however, she was able to focus herself and hold out until they very end. This was something that had to be done. Something that she had to do. Her vision blurred with fatigue. She forced her eyes to clear. Then they became blurred again, but this time with tears. She blinked until they were gone. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow, both kinds, she didn't know, and she didn't have the time to figure it out.

"Goodbye, Dameon," she whispered sadly. "DRAGON SLAVE!"

A crimson beam of mighty power shot forth from Lina's hands.

Dameon screamed as the bane of so many other foes caught up with him.

A colossal explosion, like that of a nuclear bomb, was sounded off as the spell detonated. But Lina did not hear it.

With an exhausted sigh, Lina Inverse lowered her tired arms, closed her eyes, and drifted away into sweet oblivion.

**To Be Continued...**

**Second Author's Note: **Does anyone happen to have any idea on how to spell Naga and Martina's laughs? It can be either sub or dub versions, it doesn't matter, just so long as I get a better idea of how to spell both of their laughs. Thank you.

"Why do you ask that?" you may be thinking? Well...

*waves finger* That is a secret! ;)


	12. Chapter 12: Reconciliation

**Author's Note:** Many thanks to everyone who replied. Your compliments and positive messages meant a lot to me, as they really helped to encourage me to continue on with this. My next story- **Slayers Celebrate** is just about finished, and this story's prequel **Slayers Learn** is done. I just have to get them both typed. Trust me, you'll all understand why I'm posting Celecrate first when it comes out. Thanks again to all of you, and I hope that you all had as much enjoyed reading this story as I did writing it. So please enjoy this final chapter of **Slayers Reconcile.** Catch ya' later Slayers fans!

**Disclaimer: **No, I still don't own Slayers. Hajime Kanzaka still does. And I'm perfectly fine with it now. Absolutely no crying in this disclaimer.

L-Sama- Say what now!? That's been my favorite part of this whole series! I'll put a stop to this nonsense! *beans me over head with shovel*

Me- Ow! You... but how...? T-that really hurt! Waaaah! *begins to sob uncontrollably*

**Slayers Reconcile**

**Chapter 12: Reconciliation**

Lina Inverse awoke to the sound of roaring surf and the warmth of the early-morning sun. Although she was awake, she chose not to open her eyes, for not only was she feeling mostly recharged, she was also quite comfortable, and wanted to enjoy the momentary peace. The fact that she did not know where she was, or if she had even survived passing out with so-little power left didn't seem to bother her, as she was not only extremely comfortable, but also enveloped with a sense of security that had not felt since...

An unfamiliar, yet familiar image of a dark void empty of everything but herself and a relieved and ecstatic Gourry flashed quickly through her mind, then vanished.

She tried to reach for the image again, but quit after a few moments. It was clear that that memory would not return without plenty of mental strain- and probably a bit of magic- and all she wanted to do at the moment was relax. Lie down and relax in her comfortable…something.

Lina smiled to herself as she realized that she didn't know what she was lying on. All that she knew that it was comfortable. Not nice, soft bed comfortable. It was something else, something nicer, better. Something which made her feel warm, and secure, and…

Then she noticed the low, soft breathing, the beating heart.

Opening her eyes, Lina could see Gourry's head bent over hers. The swordsman's eyes were closed, and his breathing was that of one who is fast asleep.

Gourry was sitting down cross legged on the ground amongst the burned ruins of Calthor. The swordsman was leaned back against a ruined wall, body facing the sea and the rising sun, his sword lying on the ground at his side within easy reach. In his arms he held his precious Lina close to himself so as to keep her safe.

Lina squirmed uncomfortably a bit, but then forced herself to relax. It wasn't all that bad. After all, she had perfectly fine a moment before, so why should she stop enjoying it?

Lina's movements disturbed Gourry, however, and the swordsman opened an eye just as the sorceress was about to close her eyes and drift off again.

The red head froze.

"Hey! Good morning, sleeping beauty!" Gourry greeted sleepily yet happily.

"G-good morning, Gourry," Lina answered as her face turned bright red. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" the swordsman wondered obliviously.

Then his eyes lit up with understanding, and answered, "Well, when we found you, you were lying on the ground asleep, so I just picked you up. Zel said that I should find someplace dry to lay you down at-"

Lina winced and blushed even more her companion's poor phrasing, though she knew what he meant.

Gourry carried on obliviously, "-Since the ground would be all covered in ashes and water once her and the others started to put out the fires. I couldn't find any place better, so I just kept holding onto you so you wouldn't get wet. Then I got tired, sat down, and I guess I must have fallen asleep after that.

The swordsman laughed at himself with the last sentence.

"T-that's sweet, Gourry," was all that Lina could manage for the moment, as her head was still all fuzzy from being caught this close to Gourry by the swordsman himself.

After a moment she was able to master herself to give a warm smile and reply, "Thank you." Then she closed her eyes and laid her head back onto her protector's chest.

Then a demonic howler monkey- or something that sounded very much like one- began to laugh not fifteen feet away.

A suddenly tense Lina opened her eyes and slowly turned her head around. Then she gave a scream as she saw, to her horror, Zelgadis, Amelia, Naga, and Xellos all standing about watching her and Gourry.

Naga was enjoying herself immensely as she watched Lina's expression, letting loose one of her trademark, horrendous laughs all the while. Amelia was leaning her head against her clasped together hands and giggling the way that some girls do when they see something romantic. Zelgadis looked on with a slight grin, while Xellos merely stood about and watched with interest.

By now Lina's face was an even brighter shade than her hair. Unable to think of anything else, the panicking sorceress jumped out of her protector's arms, gave a final scream, and comically flung herself over the wall behind her.

This only furthered Lina's embarrassment by causing all of her spectators to bust out laughing.

Gourry simply sat there while looking about cluelessly.

"Quit it!" Lina whined from behind her hiding place. "Its not funny! Mind your own business! Go away!"

This outburst only served to cause the others to laugh all the harder.

Though he still had absolutely no idea what was going on, Gourry was soon infected by his friends' laughter, and began to join in the laughing as well.

By this point Lina couldn't help herself. She found that she couldn't be mad at her friends for some reason, not even long enough to throw a Fireball. More importantly, she was so happy to have been alone with her protector- even if she hadn't been conscious for nearly all of it- and of finally being free of her tie to Dameon that she couldn't help but be happy. Plus, it was would be a great way of spiting Xellos by denying the Mazoku trickster priest of his favorite meal of Negative Emotions a la Lina Inverse. At last, Lina joined in and began to laugh as well, laughing long, and hard, and loud so that the world would know that Lina Inverse was back to the way she should be.

At this point, Xellos began to feel immensely queasy from the large quantity of positive emotion that the humans gave off and so teleported away with a sick-sounding groan.

The group laughed all the harder.

Later that day…

Lina stood upon the beach watching as the sun went down. A cool sea breeze blew into her face, allowing her hair and cape to flutter about freely.

The party had spent much of the rest of the day helping the villagers to set up shelters until they could rebuild their town. In a few minutes they were to leave the village of Calthor and make their way to Seyruun. There they would inform Prince Phil of the successfully concluded situation, and of the need for the peaceful nation to send aid to help the small fishing village. And to turn in their prisoners.

"Lina?"

The young sorceress turned around to see Naga and Amelia standing behind her.

"Yeah?"

"Um, the village headman wants to see us off, and…,"

"Naga," Lina interrupted as she gathered up her courage and swallowed her pride, "I…I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I shouldn't have treated you like I did. I was wrong. I shouldn't have flown off the handle like I did all those years ago, and like I did a few days ago."

Naga and Amelia looked on with a mixture of shock and amazement.

"I'm so sorry for both of those things, and I'm sorry that I didn't believe you when you tried to tell me the truth about Dameon. I should have believed you. I-,"

Lina stopped and grimaced when she saw that Amelia's eyes were welling up with tears of happiness, and that Naga was sniffling and wiping away at her own eyes.

'I'm never going to hear the end of this,' Lina groaned mentally.

Deciding that she had gotten the point across, and wanting to be done with this uncharacteristic humility, Lina raised her hand.

"Can you ever forgive me?" she asked sincerely, "Naga, my friend?"

Naga stared blankly at Lina's hand for several moments, unsure of what to say.

"And," added Lina, "Thank you for saving my life."

At last, Naga raised her own hand and accepted Lina's handshake. She then abruptly pulled Lina into a vice-like embrace.

"Oh, how could I ever stay mad at you, Lina-chan!" Naga declared joyfully as she squeezed her red-headed companion tightly. "Of course I forgive you! In fact, from now on, you and your boyfriend Gourry will never have to worry about anything again because I, Naga the Serpent, will never again leave your side!"

Happy tears flowed freely down Naga's cheeks as she gave off one of her famous laughs.

'Tuh-riffic,' Lina thought as she was slowly crushed to death by both Naga's arms and oversized breasts- the latter of which Lina's face had accidentally gotten shoved in between.

"Oh, Gracia! Ms. Lina!" Amelia wept happily as she hugged both of the older women, "I'm so glad that you two have reconciled your differences! Justice truly has been served this day!"

"Can't- breath!" Lina gasped from between Naga's cleavage.

"There is absolutely no way that any of us could ever possibly repay you five for what you have done for this village," the village headman said as he and the rest of the village stood before the gates to see Lina Inverse and her friends off.

"Ah, it was nothing," Lina replied, "Really!"

"Neither I, nor any of my fellow villagers can believe any of the horrible things that are told of you ever again, Ms. Inverse."

"Uh, yeah. Please don't bring that up."

"No need to thank us," Amelia declared, "Knowing that justice has been done is more than reward enough!"

"Although," Naga put in, "If you happen to have a little extra something…"

Once more Zelgadis' foot moved, and Naga began to hop about and yelp in pain as she held her foot.

"What she means is that you won't have to worry about having to use any of your remaining possessions to rebuild your village, as Seyruun will be sponsoring all relief aid," Zelgadis corrected.

"That's right," Amelia put in.

"Thank you once more," the headman replied as he and the villagers bowed in unison. "We are forever in your debt."

"Well, see ya!" Lina said with a casual two-fingered salute as she and her companions turn to leave.

The villagers waved and shouted out grateful farewells until they were well out of sight.

"So, what do you plan on doing with these scum?" Zelgadis asked several minutes later.

The group was now standing in the midst of a large clearing in the forest. The survivors of Dameon's bandit army who had survived the battle lay strewn about forest floor, every one of them hog tied and closely guarded by some of Lina and Naga's golems. All prisoners who were spellcasters had been placed under a curse that sealed their magic. Grimm, Joshal, Sorcerer A, and Galdus were amongst these. Dameon Black himself was amongst the prisoners, tied up like a mummy made of ropes and gagged with a sock.

"I think that we'll take 'em back to Seyruun with us, turn them in, and collect as much reward money as we possibly can," Lina replied to Zelgadis.

"And make sure that Daddy tries and sentences them," put in Amelia.

"Yeah, that too."

"Wouldn't it be more satisfying to just kill them all right here, Ms. Lina?"

Lina jumped at the face behind her and spun around to face a grinning Xellos.

"What are you doing here? I thought that you had left," the sorceress stated.

"Yes," the trickster priest replied, "But that doesn't mean that I can't hang around and have some fun now and then. After all, I've done what I needed to do, and there's no rush for me to get back to Wolf Pack Island."

"So, you've finished your business here then, have you?"

"That is correct, Ms. Lina."

"Any chance that you'll tell us what it is?"

"Nope."

"How about a hint?" pressed Lina.

Xellos pretended to think about it for several moments before replying.

"Fine."

Everyone but Naga blinked in surprise at this.

"So then? What's the hint?" asked Zelgadis.

"The hint is…," Xellos began, intentionally dragging things out.

"Yes?" said Amelia.

"A secret!"

Everyone but Naga fell over.

Xellos laughed wickedly and said, "My, my! Don't you ever learn?"

"Well, you never know with you, so there's no harm in trying," answered Lina as she picked herself up.

"One could argue that point, Ms. Lina," Amelia groaned as she stood up, her nose having bit hard into a chunk of rock as she landed.

"But you haven't answered my original question, Ms. Lina," the mazoku pressed, "Wouldn't it be more satisfying to kill them all? Especially since their leader caused you so much pain in the past?"

Lina sighed and thought about how best to answer the question.

Finally, she said, "No, not really. I'm not angry at Dameon anymore. He's not a traitorous friend who hurt me anymore. Now, he's just another thug who needed to be taken down for stupidly thinking that he could take over the world. And besides, Dameon and his allies are literally worth more to me alive."

"You're no fun," scoffed Xellos, sensing from the lack of turmoil in the human girl's mind that she was speaking the absolute truth.

Lina just stuck out her tongue.

Xellos sighed and said, "Well, if that's the way that you're going to be, I guess there's no point in me sticking around. Until next time, Lina."

With a wave, the mazoku vanished.

"Let's just hope that 'next time,' doesn't come to soon," Zelgadis grumped.

"One question though," Gourry asked spontaneously, "How did that Dameon guy survive Lina's Dragon Slave?"

"Yeah, I was kinda wondering that myself," concurred Lina.

"Most likely you had even less power left than you thought you had," answered Zelgadis with a small laugh. "You had to have been running on fumes, because that Dragon Slave only made a ten foot wide crater."

"Although you should have seen what Dameon looked like when we found him," Naga put in with a laugh. "He was all toasty and steaming, and he had this tongue sticking out and this weird expression on his face. It was absolutely priceless!"

"Yeah, it was pretty funny," agreed Amelia.

"Ah, well," Lina said as she walked over and put a foot on top of the trussed up Dameon Black. "It doesn't matter. Like I said to Xellos, he's nothing to me anymore, except some low-life megalomaniac that I have a particularly strong urge to do horrible things to."

Dameon squirmed and gave a muffled cry of despair at this."

"Well," Zelgadis asked, "Shall we get going?"

"Sure, why not?" Naga replied, "I've actually been meaning to go home and see Dad again."

"Yes!" Amelia shouted triumphantly, "The Seyruun family reunites!"

Gourry bent down, grabbed Dameon by the feet, and flung the sorcerer over his shoulder.

"I'm ready if Lina's ready," the swordsman said.

"Alright, let's go!" declared Lina.

And so the Slayers marched on into another adventure, their captives being herded by golems a short way ahead of them, and with Dameon Black mumbling curses all the way as his head scraped along the dirt road.

**The End**


End file.
